By Bisola Adeyemo
Following a new directive by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, foreigners will now be required to go through licensed local buying agents to access produce from farmers in the country.
This was established on Wednesday as part of an effort to ensure food sustainability in the country.
Beyond the issue of hurriedly disposing farm produce for foreign exchange, it was uncovered that farmers are cheated in the purchase of their farm produce.
The disclosure according was made known through the Minister of Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo while presenting two memos on behalf of his ministry before FEC, in Abuja on Wednesday.
His words, “We finally got approval from FEC today for only licensed local buying agents who must be registered by the relevant national commodity associations, they are the ones who now will be able to buy goods directly from the farmers and sell to the foreigners.
“This way, the farmers will no longer be cheated by these foreigners who just throw money at them and are able to buy their goods.”
Adebayo added: “The whole idea is that because we’re not making as much money as we used to from sale of oil, and because of reduction in the money that comes from that aspect of Nigeria’s revenue generation, we want to utilize trade as a means of generating revenue for the country. So, the action plan aims to utilise the existing national trade policy to facilitate effective use of international trade and investment as tools for economic growth and poverty reduction in the country.
“So, we’ve got approval from Council today to engage with all the ministries, departments and agencies involved in trade and revenue generation, and also the organized private sector and civil society organisations to ensure a successful implementation of the trade policy action plan.
“One of the next steps that we will be taking now that we have this approval, is to inaugurate a committee which will look into the update of the existing trade policy, which was last updated in 2002. And also, we’ll be looking into coming up with an investment policy. And these two policies we believe should be ready before the end of this year.”