FG inaugurates committee to ban foreigners from direct trade with farmers

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, has said the inability to harness the potential of the non-oil sector for meaningful economic growth is why the federal government plans to stop foreigners from direct purchase of farm produce from farmers.

The minister, during the inauguration of a technical committee to implement the ban yesterday in Abuja, said the sector could only be transformed through promotion of agri-business by Right Farm Gate pricing.

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) had in March approved a memo that would ban foreigners from purchasing farm produce directly from farmers.

He said, “The exploitation of farmers by foreigners who come to Nigeria to mop-up agricultural commodities at the farm-gates and in turn offer farmers prices below market value has become a national problem.

“The current practice of direct purchases of agricultural commodities at unfair prices by foreigners at our farm-gates poses serious dangers which include: reduction in farmers’ income, declining productivity in the agricultural sector, unemployment and insecurity.”

The minister charged the committee to raise the implementation mechanism.

The permanent secretary of the ministry, Dr Evelyn Ngige noted that the move was to aid processing and marketing of farming commodities and provide food security.

She added that the ministry had programmes to reposition the subsector such as the campaign on patronage of Made-in-Nigeria products, Nigeria Agri-business and Agro-industry Development Initiative (NAADI), Domestication of Global GAP, E-Commerce and the Commerce 160 Initiative, amongst others.