Federal Government has announced a 150-day Duty-Free Import Window for Food Commodities, suspension of duties, tariffs and taxes for the importation of certain food commodities (through land and sea borders).
In a statement on Monday, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari said duties, tariffs and taxes on imported maize, husked brown rice, wheat and cowpeas has been suspended.
Kyari said a 150-day duty-free import window for food commodities will be enforced as part of measures to be implemented over the next 180 days to ameliorate food inflation in Nigeria.
He said the measures are part of the accelerated stabilization and advancement plan recently presented to President Bola Tinubu by the economic management team (EMT) under the Presidential Economic Coordination Council (PECC) constituted by the president in March.
The minister said multiple taxes and levies, infrastructural challenges and “sheer profiteering by marketers and traders” have contributed to rising food prices.
“Over the past several months, we have all been witnesses to the escalating cost of food items in all parts of the country. There is virtually no food item that has not had its price raised to a level higher than what a good many Nigerians can afford,” Kyari said.
“The affordability crisis in our food security system has been indexed by the data from the National Bureau of Statistics which by the last count, had put food inflation at 40.66%.
“We have heard the cries of Nigeria over the prices of food items and condiments, with some now describing tomato as gold and proposing a variety of recipes to prepare soups and dishes with some of the overly priced food items.
“What in the past were regarded as common items such as yam, plantain, potato now command excessively high figures and Nigerians are right to wonder how and why things are the way they are.”
Kyari said imported food commodities will be subjected to a recommended retail price (RRP).
RN
