On many occasions,I have been to the Republic of Benin. The largest market in Benin Republic (Dantokpa in Cotonou) is not up to Gbagi Market in Ibadan. All you see in the Market are foreign products. The country manufactures virtually nothing.
I was surprised,1day, whn I discovered that they import ordinary pure water from Nigeria. More than 90% of their finished petroleum products are imported illegally from Nigeria. This poses a huge loss & sabotage to d Nigerian economy.
Their bread is as tasteless as tastelessness itself. Beninoise don't eat parboiled rice. They eat white rice. In spite of this,d parboiled rice import into d country, annually, is about $1b (over N350 billion). Who is the main beneficiary of this importation?
All d imported rice are brought into Nigeria by smuggln thru Idi-Iroko, Seme&other porous borders.There is nothing d Nigeria govt gains from this racketeering. D main beneficiaries are d smugglers,d corrupt Customs officers & govt of d Republic of Benin
What we need is development of d operation process in rice production to a world-class standard. We shall get it right,
Adejare Ibrahim