Nigeria economic crisis: Senators move to criminalise maize exports

Nigeria's Senate has passed a bill seeking to make it a crime to export large quantities of unprocessed maize in an effort to alleviate hunger in the West African nation, documents seen by Reuters on Friday showed.

Africa's most populous country is grappling with its worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.

Economic hardship has worsened since President Bola Tinubu started austerity reforms, including devaluing the country's naira currency and ending a decades-old petrol subsidy, fuelling inflation.

The weak Nigerian currency has spurred informal exports of Maize, rice and sorghum to neighbouring countries due to the exchange rate differential with the West African CFA franc.

Staple food

Maize is a staple in Nigeria that is also used for animal feed, drinks and processed flour.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecasts a rise in Nigeria's 2024/25 maize exports to 75,000 metric tons from its 2023/24 estimate of 50,000 metric tons.

The Senate bill, which will need the president's assent to become law, will make it illegal to export unprocessed maize from a minimum of 1 metric ton.

Violators would pay the value of the maize in fines or face a one-year prison sentence.

Food insecure

A joint report by Nigeria's government and the United Nations said in November that more than 30 million people are expected to be food insecure next year, a one-third jump from this year.

The USDA estimates that Nigeria consumes about 12 million metric tons of maize a year, importing roughly 100,000 metric tons.

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