Dangote Firm Laments Nigeria Customs’ Failure to Arrest Importation of Tomato Paste
The comptroller-general of the Nigeria Customs Services has refused to do anything to curb the continuous importation of tomato paste into Nigeria, despite several complaints lodged by Dangote Tomato Processing Plant at the Customs Headquarters to check the ugly trend.
The managing director, Dangote Tomato Processing Plant in Kadawa, Kano State, Abdulkarim Kaita, revealed this at the flagging off of the distribution of tomato seedlings to 5, 000 farmers under the Anchor Borrowers Programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria on Thursday at Kadawa village in Kura local government area of the state.
“It is only by putting a total ban on tomato paste importation that the government can encourage farmers to grow the commodity for the country to be self sufficient”, he submitted.
“We are appealing to the federal government to put a total ban on the importation of tomato like what it did to rice,” he added and attempted to justify this call by saying local production of tomato paste will be boosted in the country. He said the ban on the importation of tomato paste would lead to the establishment of more tomato processing plants, and cause the creation of job opportunities for more Nigerians.
He expressed displeasure that the importation of tomato paste has continued as the commodity was being imported from Cameroon and Cotonou in Benin Republic, saying the trend is hurting the development of the business in Nigeria.
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