By Isapa Toromoyan
Many Nigerians have lamented the inability of the Federal Ministry of Finance to implement
the zero food import policy three months after its announcement.
This is even as the ministry is yet to publish the lists of qualified importers and companies for the exercise.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu had approved the regulation for the implementation of zero per cent duty and Value Added Tax (VAT) exemption on selected basic food items, with the policy slated to run between July 15 and December 21, 2024.
According to the guidelines, husked brown rice, grain sorghum, millet, maize, wheat, and beans are items qualified to benefit from the policy.
Clearing agents and importers who spoke with our correspondent lamented that If the policy had been implemented from July, everyone would have seen its impact on inflation.
However, the policy, which has failed to be implemented in July, is already dashing the hopes of millions of Nigerians as the prices of food stuffs rising everyday across the country.
It was learnt that the delay in implementing the policy was as a result of the Federal Ministry of Finance’s inability to publish a list of importers qualified to participate in the process as required by the guidelines earlier issued by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in August.
Ironically, the Customs is yet to receive the list of importers and companies qualified to participate as stipulated in the guidelines.
Meanwhile, stakeholders blamed the non-implementation of the policy on civil service red tape and lack of a political will.
But the situation does not sit well with importers and manufacturers who will likely be beneficiaries of the policy.
Meanwhile, the National Public Relations of the NCS, Abdullahi Maiwada, said the role of Customs as an agency of government is to implement government policies.
He said the policy is designed to alleviate the hardship to make food easier and accessible for all Nigerians.
‘However, we have issued a guideline based on the approval of the federal ministry of finance. So it does not lies on Customs alone. There are other variables that involve importation of items. So if someone has fulfilled the requirements and we have a letter showing the approval, as a responsible agency, we are bound to implement that policy or directive.
“We are ever ready, we have created a procedure code for this process so those importations will be guided under those initiative procedure codes. So we are ready for that and whatever comes to us we are ready to implement and implementation has started. So there are no challenges as far as we are concerned. I think to do justice to us we are an agency that implements government policies,” he said.
An importer of wheat, Emeka Offor, said that it is so unfortunate that the policy to alleviate the hardship of Nigerians is being carpeted by the Ministry of Finance three months after it was announced.
“How long will it take the ministry to implement the policy and give Customs the directives to kick off the exercise? Up till now, the ministry has not been able to give the list of importers or companies who are qualified for this initiative. In the next few months, the period giving to the policy to operate will elapse. Our hopes are dashed already,” he said.
According to him, the prices of food stuffs cannot come down soon since the government has failed in its first policy to bring down the price of commodities in the market.
He said inflation will continue to rise while Naira will continue to fall against dollars, saying government has failed to curb the ongoing food crisis in the country.
Meanwhile, immediate past President of the Shippers Association of Lagos, Jonathan Nicole said that the policy will be so unfortunate if the window elapses without Nigerians benefiting from it.
He added that food-related imports need to be treated as emergency shipments, adding that the government should allow food-related imports in urgently.
“The hardship faced by Nigerians presently can be likened to that seen in war zones – despite the country not being at war.
That is why we are calling for transparency in the implementation of the policy and hand-picking special importers to bring in emergency food items should not be encouraged.
He called on the Federal Ministry of Finance to simplify emergency services for Nigerians.
However, the President of National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Lucky Amiwero, said that what the Nigerian government is doing is not what other governments are doing in other countries.
He said the ministry of finance and the rest of them are not serous, saying the government and the ministry of finance are playing politics with people’s life.
“Most of the people coming into government now, don’t understand how government is being run. They should stop playing politics with people’s life. It is people’s life that going down. There is need to sit down and revive the economy. Government should sit back and be serious,” he said.
He said there is need for them to sit down and see how they can address the issue in order to ease the tension in the country.
However, Amiwero emphasised the importance of harmonising these policies to avoid undermining the administration’s goals of stabilising prices and reducing inflation.
He further advocated the stabilisation of the domestic market by implementing an import duty rebate, fixing the exchange rate for duties at N800 to $1 for a six-month period to mitigate the impact of dollarisation on the Nigerian economy.
“This is very important to eliminate the use of dollarising the domestic market and to stabilise it for consistent, predictable and transparent transaction. We also call for immediate resolution to avoid disruptions in the implementation of fiscal policy measures intended to curb inflation and stabilise prices in the market,” he said.
