Would the World’s Largest Rice Pyramid Mean Affordable Rice for Ordinary Nigerians?

As President Buhari unveiled the largest rice pyramid in the world on Tuesday, January 18, 2022, the prevailing message of the event was an increase in local rice production and cheaper rice for Nigerians. 

The President said the launch of the pyramids marked the beginning of lower rice costs in the market. He said, “I am aware that the bags of paddy will be moving straight from here to rice milling plants across Nigeria, which leads to the release of processed rice to the markets by the rice millers. The measure will aid our efforts at reducing the price of rice in Nigeria.”

The question unanswered is how this will translate to cheaper rice for the average Nigerian. And also solve the problem of rice insufficiency for local consumption.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), through its Anchor Borrower Programme (ABP) in association with the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) made the rice pyramid possible.

A statement from CBN identified how the ABP has resulted in an increase in yield per hectare from 1.8 metric tons to 5 metric tons. And also a reduction in rice import bill from $1.8 billion in 2015 to $18.5 million.

No doubt, border closure has resulted in an increase in local rice production. The increased output is however still insufficient for local consumption and might have created artificial scarcity of the product in the market and increased the smuggling of rice into the country.

The scarcity of rice, occasioned by the border closure which pushed demand above supply, saw the price of rice per bag jump from N10,000 in November 2014 to between N25,000 to N45,000 depending on location in 2021. The locally produced rice prices also went up thus making a beloved staple unaffordable for an average Nigerian.

Neither the CBN nor the president explained how the launch of the pyramid will increase rice production or reduce costs. 

First, rice production is tracked from yield per hectare, if so then the likelihood is that the rice used for the pyramids are already accounted for in the current production figures which means they do not mark any increase in production different from what has been reported.

In his remarks, the National President of RIFAN, Aminu Mohammed Goronyo, identified that the rice in the pyramid was obtained from local rice farmers across the country. 

Secondly, perhaps the idea of the pyramid driving down prices is that once the volume stockpiled in the pyramid enters the market it will offset the existing deficit and even the scales. 1 million rice paddy packaged in 50kg bags is about 50,000 tonnes. Nigeria’s rice deficit is 1.3 million metric tonnes and “flooding” the markets with 50,000 tonnes is as good as a drop in the ocean of the consumption deficit. Yes something has been added but it is unlikely it will change the demand-supply equation significantly enough to drive prices down.

The unveiling of the world’s largest rice pyramid appears to be no more than an opportunity to applaud the success of the Anchor Borrowers Programme. The programme deserves applause for its work in promoting Agriculture and local production as exemplified by the increase in Nigeria’s rice production.

The messaging around the event should have reflected this, perhaps it would have sufficed to caption it the way one media platform did as a symbolic event “marking production progress”.

Again, it might be that the messaging around the launch of the “World’s Largest Rice Pyramid” is designed to bolster Nigerians’ spirits and improve the outcome of the president’s scorecard.