The Federal Government has said that the Nation000 lost over N5 Trillion on Import Waiver, which forced it to seek collaborative effort of the National Assembly for joint action.
The Minister of State Budget and National Planning, Mr. Clem Ikanade Agba, said while Inspecting Nutrik-k Limited, a Company that produces Nutritional Foods for stunted Children on Friday, that Government could no longer continue with waivers on Imports.
Mr Clem Ikanade Agba disclosed that the Nation had lost this huge amount that was supposed to accrue to the Government Coffers, and that they sat down and agreed to change the narrative because such negative tendencies could not be sustainable.
“We are trying hard to correct this narrative, even though we have presented our Medium term prime work to the National Assembly, so that we can bring to their knowledge what is happening for us to work collectively and stop the problems”.
The Minister explained that the Federal Government had put much priority on local productions, and that Factories like the Nutrik-k Limited are on the front Burner of Government attention to use them to stop dependency on foreign imports.
“For example the nation today is facing serious challenges on Revenue, this forced us to borrow to finance Capital Expenditure, you will agree with me that the lost N5 Trillion could have been used on solving the deficit in Infrastructure Projects development”.
Mr Clem Ikanade, said Government is now discouraging disparity on foreign exchange rates which create room for added charges, adding that they have already designed measures on how they will have single rates for everybody.
Commenting on the Factory, the Minister explained that he understood that it was designed on a 30,000 daily capacity rate, but now they are producing only 10,000, with a plan to meet 20,000 soon, therefore the Government is highly ready to help them achieve full capacity productions.
The Managing Director of the Factory, Alhaji Abdulkadir Lawan Kaita, said they are having problems with Raw materials but for now they are concentrating on local productions, with their management entering into agreement with a GroundNut Farmers in Kebbi to produce quality products for them.
He said they had some State Governments coming to patronize them with also some foreign countries of Niger, Chad and Cameron purchasing their products, which made them sit up to meet the challenges of the Compy full capacity.
