Economy: How Nigerian Government’s interventions will curb food inflation, reduce cost of living –Minister

*Mohammed Idris, Minister for Information and National Orientation, highlights recent Federal Government’s interventions and explains how they will tame food inflation, and improve affordability of commodities for consumers across the country

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

As prices of foodstuffs and other commodities are currently increasing in the Nigerian economy, Mohammed Idris, Honourable Minister for Information and National Orientation, has explained how recent interventions by the Federal Government will crash the prices of food items in the markets.

ConsumerConnect reports the prices of consumer items and other daily needs have skyrocketed of recent, thereby making life difficult for several Nigerian consumers.

Subsequently, throngs of concerned citizens have embarked on protests in a number of places, including Minna, in Niger State, Lokoja, in Kogi State, Kano and Osun states, to register their displeasure over recent developments in the country’s economy.

However, in a proactive move to address the telling socio-economic challenge among the populace, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Thursday, February 8, 2024, directed the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to release about 42,000 metric tonnes (MT) of maize, millet, and other commodities in strategic reserves, totalling 102,000 MT to address the current rising costs of food items in Nigeria.

Highlighting the impact of President Tinubu’s intervention and other ongoing measures to curb food inflation and boost the value of the Naira, Idris told reporters Thursday, in Abuja, FCT, that such measures would crash the prices of food items and make food more available for consumers.

The Minister noted: “The Federal Government has looked, once again, at the issue of difficulty of putting food on the table of most Nigerians, and has come up with a number of measures to ensure that food becomes more readily available to Nigerians.

“The first one is that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security release about 42,000 metric tonnes of maize, millet, garri, and other commodities so that these items will be made available to Nigerians immediately.

The second one is that we have held a meeting with the Rice Millers’ Association of Nigeria and asked them to open up their stores.”

He further explained: “They (rice millers) have told us that they can guarantee about 60,000 metric tonnes of rice.

“This will be made available and we know that this will be enough to take Nigerians the next couple of weeks, perhaps one month.”

Idris also said: “They have agreed that they will make that available in the market, so that food will be made available.

“Now, the whole idea of this is to crash the prices of these items and these are measures that will happen immediately.”

The Minister equally disclosed the Federal Government is considering the possibility of importing some of these commodities “temporarily”, if it becomes necessary.

Meanwhile, as the government looks at this and other option to lessen the burden of accessing quality and affordable food items, some stakeholders in the agriculture sector have reportedly kicked against importation of food items to prevent job losses in the West African country.