The Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, made a startling revelation when he appeared before the Senate committee on Agriculture today Wednesday March 27th.
The minister while making his presentation to the lawmakers, said some Nigerians import everything including pizza from London. According to the minister, those who order for Pizza from London, make the orders in the morning, through British Airways airlines.
“Do you know, sir, that there are Nigerians who use their cellphones to import pizza from London; they buy in London and bring it on British Airways in the morning to pick up at the airport. It is a very annoying situation and we have to move a lot faster in cutting down some of these things.” he told the lawmakers
Speaking further, the Minister said
”Nigeria is a nation of importers”, adding: “Toothpick every year costs us 18 million dollars; tomato paste costs us 400 million dollars. Meanwhile, a basket of tomatoes is less than N2,000. The farmers are losing money because the processors do not have enough funds to set up factories. Two factories have started off. I am sure by the end of next year we can comfortably tell the importers of tomato paste to stop.”
Watch a video from his presentation below
