By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The President, Farmers Association of Nigeria, RIFAN, Mallam Aminu Goronyo on Wednesday disclosed that
Nigerians consumed every day, N1.2 billion worth of locally produced Rice.
According to him, this became effective since Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced restriction of forex supply for rice import to the county.
Addressing journalists in Abuja over a claim by a group that, CBN was indebted to it for rice input supply, Goronyo said the combination of Anchors Borrower’s Program, forex restriction policy initiative on select items, (rice import inclusive), by apex bank help Nigerians farmers tremendously.
“From 2015, all rice we consumed in Nigeria is grown in Nigeria. If CBN has not supported us or partner with us as organ of government, the patronage won’t have been achieved.
“The CBN has supported us, we have achieved a lot from CBN. Nigerians consume N1.2 billion worth of rice everyday. If there is no Forex, the effort of CBN is to reinforce our patronage, to create millions of jobs hitherto being take away to other countries .
RIFAN President denounced one Mr. Christopher Kajere, who claimed he was owed money for rice input he supplied RIFAN. Goronyo described Kajare a faceless individual who is not known to RIFAN and had never transacted any business with RIFAN or CBN.
Goronyo urged the general public to be wary of fraudsters who wanted to use the name of the association for their selfish interest.
He said the association deals with corporate organisations not an individual and any person who tagged himself as RIFAN supplier, describing him fake.
“Our attention has been drawn to the media report where somebody somewhere is claiming to be RIFAN CBN Modern Anchor Borrowers Contractor and we checked our 25 impute suppliers and five service providers and none of them with such name.
“The person is not a RIFAN supplier or service provider and I advice the general public to be careful with such person who does not even known anything about the operation of RIFAN” he said
He added that CBN had no business with RIFAN suppliers and there was never a time the apex bank engaged in the supply chain of business.
