The Thailand ambassador to Nigeria, Wattana Kunwongse, has denied the claim by Chief Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture, that rice mills are collapsing in the Asian country.
On Friday, Ogbeh had claimed that Thailand said President Muhammadu Buhari’s policy on local rice sufficiency was responsible for the collapse of seven of its mills.
He said: “Just like two weeks ago, the ambassador of Thailand came to my office and said to me that we have really dealt with them. “But I asked what did we do wrong and he said unemployment in Thailand was one of the lowest in the world, 1.2 per cent, it has gone up to four percent because seven giant rice mills have shut down because Nigeria’s import has fallen by 95 per cent on rice alone.”
TheCable fact-checked the minister’s claims and found them to be false. According to a statement published by another online medium, on Tuesday, Kunwongse said there was no proof of the shutdown of Thailand’s major mills.
“The report is not only misleading but a distortion of the actual conversation between myself and the Minister of Agriculture at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on January 30, 2018, which was nothing short of positivity and optimism on both sides,” the statement read.
During which I praised President Buhari’s Economic Recovery and
Growth Plan (ERGP), the essence of which is the endeavour to move the
country to a self-sufficiency and export-oriented economy, and to that
worthy cause, Thailand stands ready to work closely with the Nigerian
government in the field of technological transfer and agricultural
machineries.
“At the same meeting, the honourable minister and I had
reached the conclusion that I as ambassador of Thailand to Nigeria will
be working closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and rural
development to establish a platform to discuss our mutual benefits in
the form of MOU on Agricultural Cooperation and by forming a bilateral
Working Committee toward that end.”
Thailand’s rice export to the world in 20 (January-December 2017)
reached 11.48 million tons equalising to $5.1 billion (USD), a 15.54 per
cent increase compared to previous years, which is one of the highest
figures in the history of Thailand’s rice exportation.