The Minister of Agriculture, Minister Abubakar Kayri posted on his official X page confirming that the president had approved a “150-Day Duty-free import Window for Food Commodities”.
But, the presidency has earlier said that the suspension on imported food commodities is not yet official.
Bayo Onanuga, the presidential spokesman on Monday released a statement that says that the president Bola Tinubu approved the duty-free importation of major food items which includes food items like rice, beans and wheat into the country as a medium to address the rising food price in the country’s economy.
He also listed out the food commodities to also include Maize, Brown rice, wheat and cowpea and This measure was set to be implemented within the next 180 days.
But, it came as a big surprise, as it was later discovered that Mr. Onanuga’s post on the president’s statement was deleted a few minutes after it was published.
It was later discovered that the post was a leaked post, that the statement posted by the president’s aide was still being reviewed by relevant MDAs.
“The Agric minister did not hold any briefing yesterday. The statement was forwarded to Onanuga to review but we are surprised that he posted it. It’s still being reviewed. There is nothing we can do about it. As you can see he has deleted the post,” this information was shared by a top official at the ministry, who asked not to be mentioned because he was not given the authority to speak on the matter.
Mr Onanuga was also quoted by several reporters as saying that “the measures are not yet official.”
However, in the statement, he continued to say that not only will the government now allow duty-free import for the private sector for 150 days, the federal government is willing to “import 250,000MT of Wheat and 250,000MT of Maize. The imported food commodities in their semi-processed state will target supplies to the small-scale processors and millers across the country.”
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