Nigeria’s customs office is
shutting down the warehouses and offices of four rice importers, including
Singapore-based Olam International Ltd., over unpaid fees.
Customs are demanding 23.6
billion naira ($119 million) in fees owed for more than 750,000 metric tons of
rice imported in excess of an allocated quota, Nigerian customs spokesman Wale
Adeniyi said by phone on Wednesday from Lagos, the commercial capital. Olam
owes 5 billion naira in duties and levies, while Dubai-based Stallion Group
owes 17 billion naira, Adeniyi said.
“We have sealed off a total of
21 warehouses and business premises in Lagos,” Adeniyi said. Further closures
will probably happen outside of the southwestern state, he said.
“Olam can confirm that we have
initiated legal recourse,” the company said in an e-mailed statement, declining
to comment further. Stallion didn’t immediately respond to an e-mailed request
for comment.
Africa’s largest economy and
most populous nation is dependent on imports to satisfy staple rice demand.
Nigeria produces less than half of the 6 million tons a year it consumes,
according to the U.S. Agriculture Department.
That gap has meant the
government grants a concession rate of 30 percent of customs fees for rice
brought into the country within a set quota and 70 percent for imports outside
of the limit, Adeniyi said.
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