Nigeria’s President Seeks Fertilizer Import Ban

President Muhammadu Buhari has instructed Nigeria’s central bank to stop providing foreign exchange for the imports of food and fertilizer in an attempt to boost local farming production and conserve US dollars.

Buhari said that food importers should obtain foreign exchange independently of the central bank.

Nigeria is struggling to cope with a severe shortage of dollars and a widening trade deficit after oil demand and prices dropped due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Oil is the country’s main export and a key source of dollars.

The economic issues have reportedly been compounded by floods, which decimated 450k hectares of rice area in the northern state of Kebbi, destroying more than 25% of Nigeria’s rice harvest.

In December 2018, Nigeria’s central bank banned the use of foreign exchange for Nitrogen Phosphorus Potassium (NPK) imports in an attempt to boost domestic consumption.