The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved a memo banning foreigners or their agents from purchasing agricultural commodities at farm gates across the country.

Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo, stated this when he briefed State House correspondents on the outcome of the Council meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in Abuja on Wednesday.

He said the approval was necessitated by the need for government to establish an appropriate mechanism that would protect local farmers in terms of achieving the right prices for their goods and commodities.

Adebayo added that the approval was also meant to ensure that the farmers have the appropriate incentives and the needed encouragement to guarantee their continued participation in the farming business.

“I presented two memos to the Federal Executive Council. One of the memos was the promotion of agribusiness in Nigeria through right farm gate pricing and ban on foreigners or their representatives from purchasing agricultural commodities at the farm gates.

“As you are all aware, this memo was necessitated by the need for government to establish an appropriate mechanism that would not only protect our farmers in terms of achieving the right prices for their goods and commodities, but also ensure that they have the appropriate incentives and the needed encouragement to guarantee their continued participation in the farming business.

“Over the years, foreigners have been going to the farm gates and buy produce from the farmers at low prices, thus deincentivising the farmers from continuing with their trade.

“So, we finally got approval from FEC today for only licensed local buying agents who must be registered by the relevant national commodity associations, they are the ones who now will be able to buy goods directly from the farmers and sell to the foreigners.

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“This way, the farmers will no longer be cheated by these foreigners who just throw money at them and are able to buy their goods,’’ he said.

The minister also disclosed that the Council approved the Trade Policy Action Plan.

According to him, the theme of the action plan is “Unleashing Nigeria’s Development Potentials through Trade and Investment”.

“The whole idea is that because we’re not making as much money as we used to from sale of oil, and because of reduction in the money that comes from that aspect of Nigeria’s revenue generation, we want to utilize trade as a means of generating revenue for the country.

“So, the action plan aims to utilise the existing national trade policy to facilitate an effective use of international trade and investment as tools for economic growth and poverty reduction in the country.

“So, we’ve got approval from Council today to engage with all the ministries, departments and agencies involved in trade and revenue generation, and also the organised private sector and civil society organisations to ensure a successful implementation of the trade policy action plan.

“One of the next steps that we will be taking now that we have this approval, we will be inaugurating a committee which will look into the update of the existing trade policy, which was last updated in 2002.

“And also, we’ll be looking into coming up with an investment policy.”

The Star