FG approves N60bn for rice subsidy - minister unveils

The minister of agriculture and rural
development in Nigeria Audu Ogbeh, stated this when
he briefed State House correspondents on
the outcome of the meeting of the National
Food Security Council, NAN reports.
It was gathered that the meeting was
presided over by President Muhammadu
Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on
Friday, November 16.

The minister unveiled that a committee
would be constituted by the ministry of
agriculture is in collaboration with ministry
of finance for smooth implementation of the
rice subsidy programme.
Ogbeh said: “There is a subsidy programme
coming up. Government has approved some
money, N60 billion to support the rice
industry to bring down prices(deflation). But we are
going to handle it differently.According to the minister's statement.
“We don’t want to get into petroleum subsidy
problem, so a committee is looking at it with
the ministry of finance.
“We think that it is better for us to loan
money to the millers, farmers and
distributors at a very low interest rate, so
that the capital doesn’t disappear, and if they
have cheaper credit to do their business, that
should impact on the price of rice in the
market.
“Every country does it for food, we will use a
different method to do it and it will be cheap
credit to the farmers, millers and the
marketers, not outright cash subsidy for
their product."
The minister, who announced that the Bank
of Agriculture would soon be restructured,
expressed the hope that farmers would be
able to buy shares in the bank after the
restructuring exercise.
Ogbeh also expressed optimism that the
restructuring process would bring down the
bank’s interest rates to five percent.
He added that the objective was to make
agriculture more attractive so that people
could raise capital to invest in profitable
business ventures.
The minister: “The Bureau for Public
Enterprises (BPE) is about to restructure the
bank of agriculture after which farmers are
going to be able to buy shares in the bank, so
eventually it will become the farmers bank.
“And we hope in the process that it will bring
down interest rates reasonably maybe 5
percent or a little higher, so that agriculture
will become attractive and people can raise
capital to invest."