Federal Govt Bans Direct Sale Of Agricultural Produce To Foreigners

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) at its weekly meeting, on Wednesday, approved the establishment of an appropriate mechanism to protect the indigenous farmers in terms of achieving the right prices for their goods and commodities.
The mechanism will also ensure that famers have the appropriate incentives and the needed encouragement to guarantee their continued participation in the farming business.To this end, FEC banned direct purchases of farm produce from farmers by foreigners who will now have to go through licensed local buying agents to do business with the farmers.
While briefing journalists at the end of the virtual meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the State House, Abuja, Minister of Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, said he presented two memos on behalf of his ministry before FEC one of which was the promotion of agribusiness in Nigeria through right farm gate pricing and ban on foreigners and their representatives from purchasing agricultural commodities at the farm gates directly.
According to the minister, over the years, foreigners have been going to the farm gates to buy produce from the farmers at low prices, thus discouraging the farmers from continuing with their trade.
On his part, minister of communications and digital economy, Dr Isa Pantami, said FEC okayed the introduction of another layer of quality assurance certificate in government digital services.
Pantami said before now, all federal public institutions had been mandated by law and also by government policies, that before they embark on any information technology project, they must obtain IT Project Clearance to embark on it.