Rice ships floods Lagos

A few weeks after Nigeria's Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, announced a reversal of the government's rice policy, the Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA, says 11 ships carrying rice will arrive in the Lagos ports between March 24 and 26. The NPA, in its daily bulletin, "Shipping Position," said that the ships would berth at ENL, ABTL and GONL, all in the Apapa quays. It said that the ships would include Silvretta, Star Capella, Quest, Aeolos, Lake Hakone, Maraki, Wariya Naree, Aqua Runner, Hector and Atlantic Trade. The bulletin said that other ships would sail in with containers of sugar, wheat, fish, steel product, fertiliser and general cargoes. It said that five ships carrying petroleum products were already waiting to berth at various terminals at the ports. The ships will berth at Fishery Wharf and New Oil Jetty. The federal government recently reversed its policy to increase tariff on rice importation. The policy, one of the highlighted successes of the Agriculture Minister, Akinwunmi Adesina, was to improve local production of rice, the most consumed staple food in Nigeria. The government said it was reversing the policy because of increased smuggling of rice from neighbouring countries that had reduced their import tariff following Nigeria's increase