[News] : Nigeria stops imports of wheat from Russia

Nigeria has resolved to stop the importation of wheat from Russia to help save its foreign currency reserves.

The decision was announced following the end of the fourth Joint Commission meeting between Russia and Nigeria in Abuja at the weekend.

naijapix

Nigeria spent $880 million on wheat imports last year and has already spent $660 million in 2016.

Foreign Affairs minister Hajiya Khadija Abba-Ibrahim said Nigeria would instead invite Russians to help them improve their agricultural productivity.

“We import a lot of wheat from Russia and we are telling Russia that this has to stop.

“We want the Russian companies and farmers to come to Nigeria to show us how we can grow our agriculture sector with modern technology,” the minister said.

The Russian delegation was led by the deputy head Russian Delegation in Nigeria, Mr Dianov Alexandar Yurievich.

The value of wheat imported into Nigeria between January and September 2016 was $660m, according to data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics.

Nigeria, in the first week of November, imported approximately 53 million metric tons valued at $7.8 billion.

Nigeria has stepped up wheat production and has hit 60,000MT, ranking it 61st out of 79 countries in global production.

According to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria, the country spends $11 billion (N3.1tn) annually to import wheat, rice, sugar and fish.

Nigeria’s food import was growing at an unsustainable rate of 11 per cent per annum.

Wheat is in high demand in Nigeria as a raw material for bakery and feed mills.

Meanwhile, members of Nigeria’s Shiite Muslim sect staged peaceful protests today for the second day running  to press for the release of their detained spiritual leader, Sheik Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, who has been held since December last year.

They were also protesting against the proscription of the sect by the government.

The founder of Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), an umbrella body of Shiites and some of his followers, has been held in various prisons since the sect’s clash with the military.

The clash in December in Zaria, a university town in Kaduna state, claimed more than 380 members of the sect.

President Muhammadu Buhari, in a national broadcast, accused the Shiites of holding their communities hostage.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like
Read More

China Opens ₦7.3trillion World’s Longest Sea Bridge Designed To Last 120 Years

Chinese President has officially opened the 55km world’s longest sea crossing bridge. The sixth longest bridge on earth took nine years to complete. The new bridge connects Hong Kong to Macau and the mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai. It will cut travelling time between Zhuhai and Hong Kong from about four hours to just 30 minutes. Built at the cost about $20bn (that is about ₦7.3trillion) and designed to last 120 years ,the mega structure is strong enough to withstand earthquakes and typhoons.
Read More
Read More

Man Born Without Joystick Given ₦18million Artificial Joystick, Had Sex(Photo)

A man born without a joystick has lost his virginity aged 45 thanks to a bionic manhood made from his own skin. Andrew Wardle, from Manchester, had a £50,000 10hours penile implant operation at University College Hospital London in June but had to wait six weeks before he could have sex for the first time. Andrew, pictured in hospital, successfully underwent the final stage of a £50,000 penile implant operation at London’s University Hospital and has been given the all clear to at last lose his virginity at the age of 45. In a remarkable operation, doctors built his new joystick from the skin, muscles and nerves in Andrew’s left arm, pictured, and a vein in his leg. He was born with a condition called bladder exstrophy, said he will take a fertility test to see if they can conceive and they will adopt if he can’t. As a child Andrew underwent a surgical procedure to create an artificial opening known as a stoma in his urinary system.  He had countless operations to build a tube from his bladder so he could pass water normally and suffered from kidney problems
Read More