By Chioma Obinna, Lagos

President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and other stakeholders have called for the removal of import duty on the micronutrient pre-mixes used in the fortification of staple foods, expressing fears that Nigeria may face scarcity in the supply of some food materials due to Russia and Ukraine ongoing war.

This came as the Minister of Health, Dr Ehanire Osage, charged manufacturers to produce micronutrient locally considering the growing population of the country.

They spoke during the 4th Annual Nigerian Food Processing Nutrition Leadership Forum in Lagos, attended by the Ministers of Industry, Trade and Investment, Budget, Finance and National Planning represented by the permanent secretary, Mrs. Olusola Idowu, and the Director-General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye among other leaders.

The forum organised by the Aliko Dangote Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, BMGF, and TechnoServe, under the Strengthening African Processors of Fortified Foods, SAPFF, programme was designed to address the lingering challenges in the food fortification sector using a market-based approach to assist over 90 food processors to increase their capacity to produce and sell fortified foods to local markets.

According to Alhaji Dangote, it was necessary for the Federal government to remove the import duty to reduce their cost of production, warning that Nigeria might experience scarcity of wheat flour, maize flour and also fertilizers as Russia and Ukraine are the major suppliers of these food materials to Nigeria.

While noting that to prevent the unfortunate situation, there was need to ban the exportation of maize, he said.

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“The issue is that there will be a shortage of wheat and a lot of products because as we speak a lot of fertilizers are imported from these countries.  Russia and Ukraine do almost 13 per cent of the world’s urea and 26 per cent of the world’s potash and then phosphate fertilizers.

“There will be a scarcity of food because generally, people will not be able to access fertilizers going forward. We will not see the effect now but in the next two or three months, even the US will not be able to grow the same number of plants they did last year because of this.

“On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of Flour Mills of Nigeria, Mr. Boye Olusanya, called for urgent action to check the looming crisis, adding that “Russia and Ukraine are numbers one and five in wheat exportation in the world while Nigeria relies heavily on them for the food product.

“Speaking, Chief Executive Officer, TechnoServe, Mr William Warshauer, said progress had improved since SAPFF programme began in spite of some setbacks over the past year.

He said data released by the firm showed compliance levels for salt fortified with iodine was sustained at more than 90 per cent and that compliance levels for edible oil fortified with vitamin A increased from 25 per cent in 2018 to 33 per cent in 2020 and further improved to 49 per cent by the end of 2021.

According to him, compliance levels for wheat flour fortified with vitamin A, vitamin B3, and iron increased from 56 per cent in 2018 to 64 per cent in 2021.  He further disclosed that the rating was a drop from the 93 per cent recorded in 2020.

Responding to the request by Dangote, the Minister of Health, Dr Ehanire Osagie said while the government would look at the issue critically, it was necessary for the manufacturers to find how they could manufacture micronutrients locally.

According to him, “Because with our own population growing more than 200 million, instead of relying on importation of these micronutrients, let’s look at the market opportunity that exists in the African market of these products.”

He assured that the Federal Government would continue to support efforts at fortifying foods with micronutrients, adding “Food fortification is a very important strategy because it is critical for the prevention of certain diseases.”

Vanguard News Nigeria