Enforce ban on importation of tomato paste, Industrialist urges agencies

An industrialist, Chief Eric Umeofia, on Friday appealed to the Nigeria Customs Service and other relevant agencies to strictly enforce the ban on importation of tomato paste to rebound moribund factories.

Umeofia, who is also the Chief Executive Officer, Erisco Foods, made the appeal while speaking with our reporter in Lagos.

The industrialist said that poor enforcement of the ban was capable of eroding the huge investment by local firms in the sector.

He said the ban on importation of tomato paste by the Federal Government had encouraged many investors to return to the business, adding that the poor implementation of the ban could jeopardise investment.

It was reported that the Federal Government had on March 27 banned importation of tomato paste and increased tariff on importation of tomato concentrate from five to 50 per cent to encourage local production.

Umeofia lauded government on the policy, saying that it would accelerate the development of tomato value chain, create jobs, save foreign exchange and reduce post-harvest losses.

He said that no meaningful economic diversification and socio-economic growth would be achieved without a strong manufacturing sector.

“The policy shows that we have a responsive government that is concerned about the welfare of its citizens and an enabling environment for investment to thrive.

“Already, we have started witnessing increased investment in the tomato value chain, even from the Small and Medium Enterprise operators.

“But, our concern is in the area of effective execution of the ban.

“We do not want a situation whereby the policy will suffer setbacks due to lack of judicious implementation which has been the bane of many policies of government,” Umeofia said.

He urged the government to empower the customs and other relevant regulatory agencies to effectively drive the government’s agenda to yield positive results.