(Business in Cameroon) - According to the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN), the Nigerian association of port operators, “around 600,000 tonnes of rice have been rerouted from neighbouring ports such as Benin, Cameroon, Ghana and Togo this year, because of this tax.” This follows the Nigerian government’s decision to raise the tax on imported rice to 110%, to discourage importers and encourage local production there.

To get around the government’s protectionist measure, according to STOAN, “Nigerian importers have opted to go to Benin or Cameroon and then bring the contraband into the country.” Even more so than Benin, Cameroon has all the characteristics to be the central hub of this new trade between Nigerian and Cameroonian importers  as, following the March 7, 2008 presidential decree after the hunger riots in late February, rice imports to Cameroon have been tax exempt.

Information provided by STOAN reveals the existence of a large re-export network to Nigeria, with substantial quantities of rice imported duty-free by Cameroonian operators for local consumption. But this activity is forbidden by the Ministry of Trade, as indicated by the August 10, 1990 Act governing commercial activity in Cameroon. “We have been importing rice to address our shortages. It is therefore only logical that re-exportation should be forbidden,” maintained an authorised source at the Ministry of Trade.

Before increasing the tax on imported rice in Nigeria, the Foreign Trade Directorate of the above-mentioned ministerial department estimated that 23% of Cameroonian rice was being fraudulently re-exported to Nigeria. With the Nigerian authorities new measures and the revelations made by STOAN, the estimate should be much higher.