Nigeria: Government decides to ban milk importation in next 2 years

The Government of Nigeria has decided to ban milk importation into the country in the next two years. The minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono, has said this during a press briefing to commemorate this year's World Food Day celebration, according to a news report by Premium Times.

"We have a livestock industry with an asset of nearly N33 trillion, we are planning in this Ministry watch my word, in the next 2 years, we will ban importation milk in this country because we have 25 million cows in this country, we consume 5 million liters per day," said Nanono.

Nanono said that the government is making these efforts to eradicate hunger and poverty through a robust food production system.

He also noted that to boost food production, Nigeria curbed imports which consequently increased rice production, thereby placing the country as the largest producer of rice in Africa.

"As a nation, we consider the relevance of eradicating poverty and hunger and transforming our food production systems to ensure sustainable food security," he said.

Nanono said that significant progress has been made to improve agricultural productivity since the inception of the present administration.

"Efforts in this direction are starting to show results as Nigeria is now Africa's largest producer of rice. The country is also the largest producer of cassava in the world," the minister added