Approximately 513 million metric tonnes of rice were produced in 2022/2023 market year, with China and India accounting for more than half combined. Nigeria produced around 5.4 million metric tonnes — 1% of the global production and slightly more than the US.
Over the years, merchants on agency banking platforms have played an important role in bringing the banking system closer to people. They also played a key role during Nigeria's cash crunch in Q1 2023. Despite their importance, there have been reports of people using them to commit fraud, prompting the government's recent decision to have all POS agents registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission. As of March 2024, 2.69 million POS terminals had been deployed, including those used as payment options.