House of Representatives has asked the Nigeria Customs Service
(NCS) and the Consumers Protection Council (CPC) to ensure the
enforcement of the ban on importation, smuggling, trading and
consumption of foreign poultry products in Nigeria.
This is even as it resolved to summon them before the Ad-Hoc
Committee to be set up by the House to explain why they had refused to
enforce the ban by the Federal Government.
Hon. Abubakar Amuda- Kannike, had brought a motion on the matter
before the House’s plenary, noting that there exists a ban on the
subject matter, and the consequent listing of live and dead birds,
including frozen poultry on the prohibition list.
The lawmaker said he was disturbed that these imported/smuggled
poultry products constitute serious health hazards such as renal and
liver failure as well as several other cases of digestive and intestinal
health issues as a result of their process of preservation, which
involve the use of high levels of formalin and heavy metals that are
toxic to vital organs.
He said he was concerned that the economic impact on the local
poultry industry is enormous, given that Nigerians lose about one
million jobs and about 2.4 billion dollars, approximately, N399.4
billion annually to importation and smuggling of frozen birds – a
figure, he felt is conservative, with the loss actually estimated to be
in the region of over N600 billion annually.
Amuda-Kannike said he is aware that the Nigerian poultry industry
lacked the capacity to satisfy local consumption demand of slightly
above two million metric tones, MT, annually, of which only a paltry
300,000MT is being produced locally, leaving a wide gap of about 1.7
million MT.
He expressed concern that while there was a proclaimed Federal
Government ban on frozen poultry products, the nation’s porous borders
still create avenues for smuggling of these hazardous products into the
country.
He said he is desirous of ensuring that this issue is tackled with
all sense of seriousness in a bid to nip it in the bud because of its
inherent dangers to the health of the citizens as well as its adverse
effect on the economy of the country.
From his prayers which were amended by members on the floor of the
House presided over by Speaker Yakubu Dogara, the House resolved to urge
the Nigeria Customs to be more vigilant at the borders, to ensure that
banned poultry products do not enter our country.
It urged ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, to come up
with policies that would protect farmers from the +activities of middle
men and provide funding, feeds, so as to optimise the production
capacity of Nigerian poultry farmers to meet the demand for poultry
products.
It also urged the Central Bank of Nigeria to increase the
percentage lending to poultry farmers to encourage high local production
of poultry products.
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