By mid-2023, heavy monsoon rains had brought about India’s decision to restrict further exports of its range of rice, including to Nigeria. The price of a 50kg bag of the grain is now seeing a reduction, gradually reaching closer to what the purchase value was before the Bola Tinubu presidency started, yet more is expected.

In the meantime, Platts, which is part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, has assessed its latest Parboiled Rice 5% STX on a CFR West Africa basis to indicate a lower cost for the Nigerian consumer, who has shouldered steep pricing far longer than they would have loved to bear.

A daily report by the commodity insights firm covering Wednesday, April 23, 2025, noted that parboiled rice entering West Africa is now sold at $434 per metric tonne (mt). This amounts to a reduction of $82/mt over a three-month duration.

India, the most populous country in the world with over 1.46 billion people expected in 2025, and whose Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, visited Nigeria last November, has been the main contributor to the reduction that has been observed.

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The influx of lower-priced rice from the South Asian country has reportedly helped fill up warehouses in Benin Republic, from where the cheaper sales will enter the hands of Nigerian buyers.

It has been gathered that between September and December of 2024, India exported approximately 2.11 million mt of parboiled five percent broken rice to West Africa. This represents a sharp upgrade from 720,000 mt supplied in the same period a year earlier.

As a whole, India in 2024 exported 5.35 million mt of parboiled five percent broken rice to West Africa, up from the total 3.9 million in 2023. This is according to the exporter’s Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority.

Before parboiled rice can get through Nigeria’s southwest border with the Benin Republic, it first gets to Togo, where a trader Platts interviewed summed up that the current situation in almost every region of West Africa is the same: quiet and bearish, meaning cheaper grains are available everywhere in the region.

The local rice farmers in Nigeria do not want such reliance on imports to feed the country, but mainly themselves and not the household consumer, to get the benefits. 

Nigeria, being the largest rice market for Benin, has continued to see imported rice enter through its neighbour, although not every cargo passes through customs checks. As a result of the recent influx, both local and imported rice prices in West Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria, have nosedived as the last 14 days’ data showed.

One miller that the S&P Global Commodity Insights observed confirmed that the local grain has dropped from ₦80,000 – ₦90,000 ($49-$56) per 50 kg bag to mostly ₦60,000 ($37) per 50 kg bag, although it could be cheaper.

The Indian imported rice in particular has dropped from ₦80,000-₦110,000 per 50 kg bag now to ₦58,000-₦59,000 at most, so are Nigerians taking this as good news?

Across their socials, there is a thirst among locals witnessing the drop in prices of a return to the Muhammadu Buhari era, although it wasn’t a time detached from its own separate set of complaints.

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Here in the present, though, some people living in the southwest communities, like the X profile daddytweens, are still relishing the reduction, somehow, while the effect trickles down widely.

I am in Ado Odo Ota LGA. In Idioke, you can get 50 to 56k, in Atan, you can get it 58k to 60k, in [the] remotest area, you can get it 50k. It depends on the seller’s level of greediness.

With the daily price slide, it has been reported that buyers still holding their stocks are adopting a cautious approach and awaiting stabilisation before making new orders.

Ayodele Johnson

Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.