President Muhammadu Buhari has pledged that his administration will ban rice import in 2018.

The president said this in his New Year broadcast on Monday.

He said, “We have got to get used to discipline and direction in economic management. The days of business as usual are numbered.

“Two years ago I appealed to people to go back to the land. I am highly gratified that agriculture has picked up, contributing to the government’s effort to re-structure the economy.

“Rice imports will stop this year. Local rice, fresher and more nutritious will be on our dishes from now on.

“By the same token, I am today appealing to enterprising Nigerians with ideas and unemployed graduates and other able-bodied and literate men and women with ideas not to just sit and wait for employment from the government or the Organized Private Sector.

“Great nations are built by enterprising people who turn their hands to anything that circumstances dictate.”

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