Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Yari yesterday said the Federal Government will ban importation of rice in the next two years.
He spoke with State House correspondents at the end of a meeting on the new policy on agriculture and food sustainability at the Vice President’s conference room.
The governor pointed out that former President Goodluck Jonathan administration did not export any locally-produced rice from the country.
He said: “We discussed how we can boost rice production and how we are going to put policy in place to ban rice importation.
“We have the potential; we have the human resources; we have the arable land to grow rice.
“In the next two years, we will not need to bring rice from outside Nigeria. We are going to ban it.”
Yari said: “It is only in Nigeria, a country of millions of people, that there is no food security.
“We discussed the policy with the relevant permanent secretaries and Central Bank governor.
“The policy is going to be in place and we gave our commitment that we are ready to support the government policy in ensuring that Nigeria becomes self-sufficient in food production in the next two years.
“Nigeria is presently a major importer of rice. Now, the political will is in place to stop it. We in about nine states are going to be seriously engaged in massive rice production.
“We are hoping that in the next two years, rice importation into Nigeria will be banned. We are committed and the political will is in place.”
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