National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control,NAFDAC, and the Nigeria Customs Service are partnering to increase surveillance in monitoring activities at the border posts to curb rice smuggling.

Acting Director-General, NAFDAC, Yetunde Oni, said records showed that rice imported through the seaports were registered as good quality as pronounced by satisfactory reports from NAFDAC laboratories while those smuggled through the land borders were unregistered and largely substandard.

“In order to actualise our core statutory functions in the effective inspection of imported NAFDAC regulated products, the agency strongly collaborated with customs at the seaports, airport and land borders to ensure that only wholesome, good quality and safe products are allowed into the country.

“NAFDAC is poised to joining hands with customs to increase surveillance and monitoring activities at all border posts to curb the menace of rice smuggling through the land borders.

“I wish to reaffirm that the existing cooperation and collaboration with NCS will be strengthened and sustained to continue to assist NAFDAC in delivering on its mandate on safeguarding the health of the Nation,’’ Oni said.

She said Nigeria had only 42 local rice producers that registered with NAFDAC.

According to her, to curb the influx of fake and counterfeit medicines into the shores, the Federal Government designated some ports as entry points for drugs and pharmaceutical raw materials.

She said the importation of the products through the land borders was strictly prohibited, saying the designated ports for food products were Apapa port, Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Port-Harcourt International Airport, Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport and Akanu Ibian International Airport, Enugu.

Oni said with the ban on importation of rice through land borders, NAFDAC aligned with customs to support current effort in preventing importation and clearance of the product through the system, saying this would help reduce the amount of foreign exchange used in the importation of rice.

She said it would also reduce loss of revenue through smuggling and grow the milling of local rice through the promotion of strategic investment in local production.

Chairman, Presidential Committee on Trade Malpractice, Dahiru Kurawa, said 10 years ago, Nigeria was only importing 1.5 tonnes of rice, was now importing three million tonnes, saying the importation had caused a huge derange in the country’s foreign exchange

He said 80 per cent of rice cultivated in the world was produced in a small hectare of land, saying only China and Japan were cultivating it with machinery, saying why government is adamant in stopping smuggling of rice into the country.