16 April 2008
Lagos — The World Bank has said it is ready to assist Nigeria in solving the problem of rising in food prices that threatening the world.
This is coming on the heels of Federal Government's assurance that it is already taking proactive steps to avert the impending rice shortage in the country.
Managing Director of the bank, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in an interview with THISDAY in her office in Washington, DC, USA, on Monday said the Bretton Woods institution could offer some emergency loans to assuage the situation as well as restructure some of its programmes to make additional resources available for food and to support agriculture.
"If a country feels that they are in urgent need of assistance, if they say they need immediate help to have additional resources to buy food, we will restructure some of our programmes that are ongoing. We have this community development programme in Nigeria.
"We can restructure them to make additional resources available to focus on getting more food resources into the hands of the people who need them.
"We can also do some emergency loans, if needed. We have the facility to do very fast concessional lending to help countries pay for high cost of import. We also recognise that many countries have removed taxes and tariffs on food import. That means they are losing revenue and that is having an impact on their fiscal situation and some of them are asking because we are doing this, we are losing," Okonjo-Iweala said.
Citing Guinea Bissau as an example of a country which is estimated to lose $15 million over the next few months because its government removed tariffs, she said: "We can provide emergency operations to make more resources available to these governments, either to buy food for the mean time or support agriculture."
According to her, "The planting season in many countries is upon us and they are looking for improved seeds and fertilisers and we are able to do that. In fact Kazakhstan, a country in Central Asia said they would need a million dollars for improved seeds for this planting season, which is coming up and we are going to help them do that. All those kinds of things not just in Africa but also all over the world."
She said the Federal Government had not approached the World Bank for assistance on the impending food crisis, which is already taking its toll on many countries of the world, adding that if the intervention of the bank was sought, it would be ready.
Expressing her view on the proposed importation of N65 billion worth of fertilizers, Okonjo-Iweala said it would be a good thing and a step in the right direction, if the fertilisers were made a available to the farmers who need them to improve their yields.
Making the assurance, the Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Sayyadi Abba Ruma, said the government "has taken note of widespread reports in the media on the impending rise in the price of rice - one of Nigeria's staple foods. We re-assure Nigerians that there is no need for any panic reaction either by buyers or sellers of this commodity. Indeed, the situation is a global phenomenon and is not peculiar to Nigeria."
Speaking to State House Correspondents in Abuja yesterday, Ruma said: "Specifically on rice, government will facilitate provision of lands for large scale farming through contract farming and co-operatives and government also intend to adjust import levies to reflect current challenges in development of local production, while also expanding the rice value chain, especially by establishing agric processing centres and agric parks."
He said the pronouncement by the worlds two major producers - India and Thailand - that they were "unwilling or do not have any surplus to export is a lesson for the country to begin to look inward in the production of food and other agricultural products.
"The lesson for us as a nation is to begin to look inwards, develop our inherent potential and depend less on food imports," Ruma said.
He said from available records, Nigeria currently produces a meagre 525,000 metric tons of rice per annum, using about 1.4million hectares of land and derive 0.96 tons of rice per hectare.
"Our present rate of consumption is 2.3 million metric tons. That implies that we have to import the short fall, spending about $267million. The projected national demand for rice is 4.64 million metric tons annually. The challenge we have is to strive and meet this demand through a strategic plan, which also covers sugar, cotton, wheat, cassava, tomatoes, livestock and fisheries.
"The government has taken a pro-active measure to cushion the likely effects of rising food costs by releasing grains from the Strategic National Reserve. We assure all Nigerians that the present administration has a long term plan to make the country self-sufficient in food production and eventually guarantee food security for all citizens," he said.
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