Bag of Rice May Sell for N40,000 by December- Minister of State for Agriculture

         Lokpobiri Heinekein, minister of State for Agriculture, says if Nigeria fails to begin the process of producing its own rice, the cost of a bag of rice may shoot up to about N40,000 by December this year. He said this at a town hall meeting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state capital  yesterday.

        For your information, we spend about $22bn a year importing food into Nigeria. We know how many more dollars they bought and that is why you see the price of rice going up. Price of rice was may be N12,000 some months ago, but it is now about N26,000 and if we don’t start producing, by December it could be N40,000.