Checking rising food prices

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) has revealed that inflation rose to 33.95 per cent in May. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), food inflation for the same period hit a record high of 40.68 per cent. The combined effect of this is a surge in the prices of essential food items such as rice, beans, cassava flour and others. In recent years, the country has been battling food scarcity during planting season, but the problem has worsened this year. The development is a threat to the nation’s food security. Millions of Nigerians are daily grappling with hunger and poverty. Some of the policies of the present administration have apparently aggravated the situation.
The government should urgently address both the remote and immediate causes of the rising food prices. According to the 2023 Global Hunger Index, Nigeria’s hunger level was very ‘serious.’ The country was ranked 109 out of 125 countries with a low score of 28.3 per cent in the hunger index scale. A World Bank’s report said Nigeria’s poverty level increased by 38.9 per cent in the last one year, the highest in the world, and only second behind India. In its 2022 national survey, the NBS revealed that 133 million Nigerians lived in multidimensional poverty. The 133 million mark represents 63 per cent of the total population of the country.
It has become exceedingly necessary for both the federal and state governments to proffer urgent solutions to the poverty challenge. The recent widespread protests in Kenya, over President William Ruto’s tax bill hike should worry Nigerian leaders. Instructively, Ruto rescinded the unpopular tax hike bill.
President Bola Tinubu has also promised to assist state governments with necessary support to enable them engage in aggressive food production. While the President’s promise is commendable, there should be concrete plans to check the rising food prices, inflation and insecurity.
There is the need to stabilise the value of the naira and ensure realistic exchange rate between the naira and other major foreign currencies. The increase in the prices of food items is unacceptable, despite the over N1.24 trillion federal budget for agriculture and food security in the last three years. Recently, farmers under the aegis of All Farmers Association of Nigeria raised concerns about the devaluation of the naira and insecurity, which they blamed for the rising food prices.
Beyond this, the government may consider reopening the nation’s borders so that essential food items can be imported. The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) made a similar suggestion recently during an advocacy meeting with traditional rulers and other stakeholders in Bauchi State. The agency stated its intention to ensure that consumers get value for money by monitoring the price hikes in the markets and protect Nigerians from being exploited by business owners. The Price Control Board will not solve the problem. For Nigeria to achieve food security, food items must be available and affordable. There must be concrete efforts to boost food production through huge investment in agriculture and agro industries. Statistics show that the agricultural sector contributes about 23 per cent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The surge in headline inflation should be taken as a wake-up call for the CBN to initiate far-reaching policies that will stabilise prices and set inflation ceiling. The CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, should tackle this head-on, as well as roll out other measures that will boost investment in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Reports have shown that about 26.5 million Nigerians would be in acute food shortage by the end of this year if government fails to initiate measures to boost food production. The World Food Programme (WFP) has raised the alarm that 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will experience serious food deficit this year. Reducing the level of our imports and encouraging exports will largely boost food production. Nigeria should stop spending so much money on food imports when it has the human and material resources to grow enough food for its citizens.
Sadly, the government spent a whopping N7.8trillion on food imports in the last six years. The amount spent on imported food products accounted for 7.29 per cent of the total imports. The huge amount spent on imports had depleted the external reserves, which dropped to $32billion in recent months. Altogether, government should do more in the agricultural value chain to spur local production and encourage private sector investment in food production.