The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) will on Thursday distribute 27,000 metric tonnes of rice paddies directly to millers nationwide.
The bank’s acting director of corporate communications, Osita Nwanisobi, said in a statement the move is aimed at reducing rice prices in the wake of rising food inflation in the country.
This is the second time the apex ban will be intervening in checking food inflation in the last six months. In January, it had in conjunction with relevant agencies, released 300,000 metric tonnes of maize from strategic anchors under its Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP).
Nwanisobi said the direct allocation from RIFAN warehouses across 16 federation states followed the earlier sale of paddy aggregated as debt payback under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) to millers from rice pyramids unveiled in Niger, Kebbi, Gombe, and Ekiti states.
According to him, Kaduna State has been selected as the key location for the paddy allocation exercise which will be done simultaneously in the states that recorded the highest quality of rice harvests during the last farming season.
He further explained that the new strategy was in line with the bank’s mandate of ensuring price stability and its focus of being a people-centred central bank and expressed optimism that the allocation of the paddies would trigger a decline in the prices of rice in the Nigerian market, boost availability, and ultimately check the activities of middlemen seeking to create artificial scarcity along the supply chains.
According to the CBN, pyramids of rice paddies will be unveiled in the federal capital territory (FCT), Ebonyi and Cross River in the coming weeks.
