Border Closure: "We Are Not Making Sales Anymore" Rice Sellers Lament
Rice sellers in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital reportedly said Nigerians are not ready to buy the locally made rice despite the border closure.
Joy Kalu 
Rice sellers reported that some consumers will never purchase the locally produced rice despite the increment in price of the foreign imported rice, they will rather buy it than the local rice.
Mallam Mahmud Ismail, a rice seller said only few customers requested for local rice as they always preferred the foreign Rice.
“Hardly will you see one out of 10 customers requesting for local rice in my shop. They always want the foreign rice,” Ismail said.
Another seller, Mrs Bimpe Ekundayo said customers complained about the poor quality of the local rice.
“Many customers complain of stone particles and the low quality of local rice. I make sales of 10 bags of foreign rice to 4 bags of Nigerian rice due to the quality,” Ekundayo said.
Another seller popularly called Iya Ibeji at Ipata market, said sales of local rice were not fast as customers looked down on it.
“Local rice is always second choice in their budget. They feel reluctant and sad when I suggest for them to buy local rice. They are even ready to pay more for the foreign rice,” she said.
Mrs. Iyabo Aina called on the Federal Government to lift ban on the importation of rice and allow free flow of the product in the country.
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“We are not making sales anymore. Nobody is ready to buy local rice and it is affecting our business. Government should do something on time,” Aina said.
However, Mr Stephen Ikechukwu, another seller, lamented that the closure of the borders against importation of foreign rice had caused sharp increase in the general prices of rice in the market.
“Now, we sell local rice for N20,800 while the foreign rice is N26,000. It was never like this before the closure of the border when we used to sell a bag of local rice for N9,500 and the foreign N13,000,” he said.
Also, a rice seller, Alhaja Rukayat Usman urged the Federal Government to encourage the public to patronise local rice and stop discriminating against it.
“We need to change our attitude towards locally made products and appreciate Nigerian made. We are fond of prioritizing anything foreign ahead of our locally made products which are bad,” she said.
