Obasanjo Warns Against Opening Nigeria Borders for Poultry Importation

Following the removal of forex ban on the importation of poultry products and 42 other items, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has warned against opening Nigerian borders for importation of the product into Nigeria.

Obasanjo, who was the grand patron of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) while speaking virtually at the second summit of the association yesterday in Abuja, harped on the need for government to support the industry and not open the market for others to dump their poultry products in the country.

Obasanjo said: “When you talk of poverty eradication, wealth creation or employment generation, poultry is one of the best that you can go into either at Small, Medium or large resources level, moreso, the market is at the door step.

“When the poultry industry is thriving, it will trickle down the value chain including maize and soybean farmers and pharmaceutical companies producing drugs for the birds will also benefit.”

The former head of state stressed the need for the government and private sector to pay attention to the poultry industry, given its importance to provide job opportunities, food and nutrition security.

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Dr Sabi Abdullahi, in his remarks, revealed that the per capita poultry consumption was 1.75 kg which fell below the 6.2 kg Africa average, adding that the annual consumption of poultry meat in Nigeria was put at 1,500,000 MT and production output was just about 55 per cent of consumption, estimated at 826,902.42 MT.

This he said, had left a huge deficit of 45 per cent, which was about 675,000 MT.

He lamented that the deficit was unfortunately met through smuggling of poultry and poultry products which most of the times, were unwholesome, with its attendant negative effects on the citizen, industry and the economy.

To save the poultry industry from imminent collapse, he revealed that the government was putting in place measures to meet up with requests poultry farmers, including the possibility of import duty waiver, VAT exemption on the importation of feed grade maize and soya-bean as well as on the issue of the recent lifting of the forex restriction on importation of poultry and poultry products.

He, however, tasked the research institute to focus efforts on coming up with maize varieties for livestock feed only to reduce the demand pressure on the ordinary maize used for food and other purposes by humans.

The President of Poultry Association of Nigeria, Chief Sunday Ezeobiora, while highlighting the challenges bedevilling the sector, regretted that Nigerian banks were not willing to provide the finance, saying they were waiting for the take-off of the Nigeria Agricultural Development Fund, with the hope that when the fund took off, it would not toe the line of the Anchor Borrowers Scheme and the interest rate would not go beyond four per cent.

The association also called on the government to immediately halt exportation of Soybeans and maize, hinting that some exporters were at the verge of exporting the available grains.

He appealed to the government to urgently attend to their request, so that the industry would not collapse.