Audu Ogbeh, the Minister of Agriculture, has disclosed that Nigerians import everything, which he gave example of Pizza from London.
Speaking to the Senate Committee on Agriculture on Wednesday, Ogbeh said that some Nigerians order Pizza from London using their phones in the morning through British Airways airlines.
In his words, “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.
”Nigeria is a nation of importers, 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.”
