Smugglers’ accounts in banks will be frozen - CBN
The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has said the bank accounts of all identified smugglers will be frozen soon.
Emefiele, who said this yesterday after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja, expressed satisfaction that the decision to close all land borders had not only created more jobs but also boosted rice and poultry productions in the country.
“You will all recall that we have been embarking on a programme where we are saying if you are involved in the business of smuggling or dumping of rice in the country, we close your account in the banking industry. Although that is coming very effectively,” the CBN governor said while fielding questions from State House Correspondents.
Emefiele, who was asked about the effect of the border closure on the economy and rice production in the country amid complaints, said, “You will all recall that in November 2015, President Buhari, the Central Bank and some state governors went to Kebbi State to launch the Wet Season Rice Farming. Since then, we have seen an astronomical growth in the number of farmers who have been going into rice farming and our paddy production has gone up also quite exponentially.
“Between 2015 and also now, we have also seen an astronomical rise in the number of companies, corporate and individuals that are setting up mills, integrated mills and even small mills in the various areas. And the central bank and the federal ministry of agriculture and rural development have been the centre of not just only encouraging the production of rice in Nigeria but also funding these farmers by given them loans to buy seedlings, fertilizers or some of the herbicides that they need for their rice production.
“You will all recall that we have been embarking on a programme where we are saying if you are involved in the business of smuggling or dumping of rice in the country, we close your account in the banking industry. Although that is coming very effectively.
The CBN governor added, “Recently, and this is the absolute truth, about two weeks before the border closure, the chairman of the Rice Processors Association, incidentally, he owns Umza Rice in Kano, called me and said that all the rice millers and processors are carrying in their warehouses nothing less than 25,000 metric tons of milled rice in their warehouses. That the rice have been unsold because of the smuggling and dumping of rice through Republic of Benin and other border posts that we have in the country and that he would want us to do something about it.
“Secondly, we also have members of the Poultry Association of Nigeria who also complained that they have thousands of crates of eggs that they could not sell together with even some of the processed chickens that they could not sell also arising from problem of smuggling and dumping of poultry products into Nigeria.”