CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA RESTRICT FOREX IMPORTATION OF CASSAVA

*GREAT NEWS TO ALL CASSAVA FARMERS*
CBN restricts forex for importation of cassava products-
Published -September 20, 2019 by Ifeanyi Onuba, Abuja

The Central Bank of Nigeria has said it will no longer provide foreign exchange for the importation of cassava, starch, ethanol and all other derivatives into Nigeria.

The CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, said this during a meeting with some state governors held at the headquarters of the CBN.

The meeting was attended by governors from 20 states, namely Borno, Lagos, Ekiti, Imo, Jigawa, Anambra, Adamawa, Benue, Sokoto, Katsina, Gombe, Bauchi, Zamfara, Edo, Benue, Ogun, Kebbi, Kaduna, Edo and Bauchi.


The purpose of the meeting was specifically to get the cooperation of the governors in the area of economic diversification, job creation and poverty reduction.

The CBN governor said the decision to hold the meeting was based on the directive by President Muhammadu Buhari that the bank should boost production of 10 key commodities.

They are rice, cotton, oil palm, tomato, cassava, poultry, fish, maize, cocoa and livestock/dairy.

Specifically, he said in the past three months, the bank had made substantial progress but there was a need to interact more with state governors to sustain the momentum.


Emefiele said the ultimate objective was to make states economically viable through enhanced

The Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Mr Godwin Emefiele has declined the Forex importation of Cassava, ethanol, Starch and other derivative into the Country.

This was contained in a meeting held with some governors at the Central Bank of Nigeria headquarters with the appearance of twenty Governor from each state in Nigeria.

Emefiele said the purpose of the meeting was to get the cooperation of the governors in the area of economy diversification, job creation and poverty reduction.

He said the decision to hold the meeting was a directive from the president Muhammadu Buhari noting that the bank should boost the production of ten keyscommodities such as rice, cotton, palm oil, tomatoes, cassava, fish, poultry, maize, cocoa, livestock and dairy.

Governor Emefiele states that in the past three month, the bank has made substantial progress but there was a need to interact more with state governors to sustain the momemtom.

While stating further, he said the ultimate objective was to make the state economically viable through enhanced investments by the private sector.

This, he stated, would in turn create more economic opportunities at the sub national level, as well as engage the teeming youths in meaningful enterprises, improve  internally revenue base for states to meet the developmental expectation of its citizens.

He said the apex bank’s intervention in various sectors of the agricultural value chain had started to yield results and also described Nigeria as the world’s largest producer of cassava tubers with 53 million metric tonnes per annum.

However Emefiele recalled  that the yield per hectare averaging 20 tonnes was very low compared to other jurisdictions.

According to the CBN governor, the country imports cassava derivatives with over $600m each year.
said, the cassava initiative of the bank is to improve productivity, stabilise prices and encourage local processing to generate employment and also improve the cassava seed productivity, stating that bank are ready to collaborate with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture on the production and supply of cassava cultivars that can increase yield up to 40 tonnes.

“Arrangements are underway to support 51,388 farmers to produce 830,820 metric tonnes of cassava tubers for some identified processors.

The country imports cassava derivatives of over $600m per year and we have also begun to restrict foreign exchange to those who want to import cassava, starch, ethanol and all other derivatives into Nigeria.

In the area of rice, he said the bank had financed the construction of rice mills to support food self-sufficiency and security adding that bank had released a total of N146bn to 849,480 farmers across the country in the wet and dry seasons.

He said, Dangote Farms is constructing five mills, two in Jigawa State and one each in Kebbi, Zamfara and Sokoto and other rice mills financed by the bank include the WACOT and Labana Rice Mills in Kebbi State, and  Umza Rice Mill in Kano.


For cotton, the governor said the bank had begun with the cultivation of 200,000 hectares of hybrid cotton distributed to 200,000 farmers in 26 states in the country.

For livestock, he said with Nigeria spending about $1.5bn yearly on the importation of dairy products such as milk, yogurt, cheese and other milk derivatives, the bank would scale up its support to the sector.

He said, Over 95 per cent of milk products consumed in the country is imported, a narrative that we are determined to change.


“The dairy industry had huge potential such as the creation of millions of jobs and forex savings.

“In addition, the sector has an undeveloped meat proces