Hunger humbles Nigerians as FG’s food import waiver fails

Several Nigerian families are struggling to have three square meals in 24 hours as the federal government’s promised food import waiver on essential food items failed to kick off in 2024.

“I had expected the food import waiver to take effect last year, but that did not happen. Currently, I spend 65 percent of my earnings on food. The rest goes into transport and other essential things. I do not even have anything left to save or invest,” said Lagos-based Ibrahim Wahab, who has a family of four.

The directive for the federal government’s food import waiver was contained in a July 2024 letter issued by the Federal Ministry of Finance.

The ministry had explained that the suspension of import duty on rice, wheat, maize and other essential food items was aimed at ameliorating the surging cost-of- living crisis in Africa’s most populous nation.

The import waiver window was to run from July 15 to December 31, 2024.

Food items like rice, husked brown rice, grain sorghum, and beans, had a duty rate levy ranging from 5 percent to 30 percent.

Fingers Pointed at Ministry of Finance

Abdullahi Maiwada, national public relations of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), had told BusinessDay in September 2024 that the reason for the delay in the implementation of the policy was the Federal Ministry of Finance’s failure to forward a list of importers and companies qualified to participate as stipulated in the guidelines.

“The moment the Customs issued the guidelines conveying the approval of the Federal Ministry of Finance, technically, the implementation started. But since the guidelines came from the Federal Ministry of Finance, they are also supposed to provide the list of the importers qualified to benefit from the import waiver,” Maiwada said.

Up till December 2024, the ministry did not forward the list to the Customs and it did not provide an explanation when BusinessDay contacted it.

Read also: FG’s food import waiver plan fails to kick-off as 2024 rolls out

Hunger rising

More than 67 Nigerians, including children, died in stampedes during the festive season while scampering for food palliatives by charity bodies. Analysts say the situation shows the depth of hunger in Africa’s most populous nation.

The World Food Programme said in late 2024 that 33 million Nigerians could face hunger in 2025, representing a jump from 25 million citizens who faced starvation last year.

“Never before have there been so many people in Nigeria without food,” Chi Lael, WFP spokesperson for Nigeria, told journalists in Geneva in 2024.

President Bola Tinubu’s bold but costly reforms, including devaluation of the country’s currency and removal of petrol subsidies, have raised the cost of living crisis across the board in Nigeria.

In November, inflation soared to 34.6 percent, the highest in 28 years, while food inflation peaked to 39.9 percent in the same period.

The average cost of preparing a pot of Jollof rice, a popular Nigerian delicacy for a family of five, rose by 5.1 percent to N21,300 in four months to September 2024, according to the Jollof Index report.

Currently, prices of a 50kg bag of rice — both local and foreign – costs an average of N100,000, respectively, higher than Nigeria’s minimum wage of N70,000. Price of food items such as beans, cassava, potatoes, among others, have jumped by over 100 percent in one year, with insecurity seen as a major culprit.

The non-implementation of the import waiver in 2024 is seen as a major blow to the majority of Nigerians who had hoped on the waiver to breathe a sigh of relief.

“The impact of a lot of what we experienced in 2024 such as flooding, drought in northern states and climate impacts on food production will be seen in 2025,” said Abiodun Olorundero, managing partners at Prasinos Farms, in a telephone interview.

“Therefore, something has to be done fast,” he emphasised.

According to him, efforts to double food production should be in place in 2025, lest the country sees its worst food crisis in decades.

Daniel Brown, a food importer, said: “The cost of food and other items would have reduced if the policy had been implemented from July 2024. However, non-implementation of the policy means lack of coordination on the part of government agencies – all to the detriment of Nigerians.”