Minister of agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, on Wednesday said Nigerians now order pizza from London and receive their orders in the morning through British Airways airlines.
Mr Ogbeh said this on Wednesday while addressing Senate committee on agriculture.
The minister did not give official figures to back up his claim which has stirred up discussion on social media.
Ogbeh said: “Do you know, sir, that there are Nigerians who use their cellphones to import pizza from London; they buy in London and bring it on British Airways in the morning to pick up at the airport. It is a very annoying situation and we have to move a lot faster in cutting down some of these things.
”Nigeria is a nation of importers, toothpick every year costs us 18 million dollars; tomato paste costs us 400 million dollars. Meanwhile, a basket of tomatoes is less than N2,000.
“The farmers are losing money because the processors do not have enough funds to set up factories. Two factories have started off. I am sure by the end of next year we can comfortably tell the importers of tomato paste to stop.”
