There are so many moving parts with the border closure- fuel smuggling, foodstuffs like chicken, wheat, fish, human trafficking and smuggling of weapons- but today we limit our discussion to rice.

Here are some quick facts

1. India had the highest export volume of rice worldwide, at 12.5 million metric tons as of 2018/2019.
2. Nigeria is the third highest rice importing countries in the world after china and the Philippines
3. In the last quarter of 2018, president Buhari imposed an import tariff of 70 percent, on imported rice but inspite of the high tariffs rice imports increased significantly as at first quarter 2019.
4. Over the last couple years, Indian rice exports to Nigeria through the officials customs route fell drastically due to high tariffs, but on the other hand the imports into the Republic of Benin increased drastically, rice imports to Cameroon and Niger also increased significantly

5. On August 19, President Buhari ordered all land borders to be permanently closed

6. Nigeria boarders Niger to the north, Niger is heavily dependent on agriculture, and lifestock (cattle and herdsmen) poverty and crime could escalate with the land closure

7. Nigeria’s north east border is chad- chad has a little oil, but depends heavily on agriculture and Lifestock- (Herdsmen)

8. Cameroon borders Nigeria to the east and republic of Benin (Togo) to the west

9) Following the border closure, Indian’s rice export has dropped considerably by 30% as at august

10) Nigerian rice local rice millers have confirmed an increase in production- Alhaji Abdullahi Idris Zuru, Managing Director, Labana Rice Mills Ltd in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State, in a telephone interview with Daily Trust, acknowledged that the closure of the border has improved their sales.

“The truth is it has improved our sales and it has equally increased our production. Before the closure, most of the existing rice mills had milled and stored the commodity in their warehouses because there was no market. Some even suspended production. For those who are strong, they kept on milling and storing despite absence of any good sale,” he said.

Alhaji Abdullahi Idris Zuru- Local rice Miller

we conclude with one crazy fact- – one of the leading rice producers in the country is owned by an Indian- Inaugurated in 2017, Amarava rice mill the first end-to-end made-in-Nigeria rice mill, has been producing an average of 300 metric tonnes of rice per day