Mohammed Shosanya
The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has fault President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s committee on food security for its lack of impact on Nigeria’s rising food prices.
Its Chief Executive Officer,Muda Yusuf,who conveyed this in a statement, said that Nigeria’s headline and food inflation rates for May 2024 were 33.95 percent and 40.66 percent, respectively.
He bemoaned the declining purchasing power of Nigerians amid persistent inflation.
He identified several factors driving the inflation such as: depreciating exchange rates, increasing transportation costs, logistics and supply chain issues, forex market volatility, high energy costs, climate change, insecurity in farming communities, seasonality of agricultural outputs, and structural production bottlenecks.
He added:“Regrettably, inflation drivers are not receding. There is also the factor of seasonality of agricultural outputs, which triggers seasonal price surges in some food crops. It is important to stress that insecurity in farming communities remains a major factor in disrupting agricultural production and perpetuating the food supply crisis.
“The food security situation is frightening and requires an urgent and emergency response. Meanwhile, the impact of the Presidential Committee on Food Security is yet to be felt. We believe that the proposals contained in the government’s Inflation Reduction and Price Stability Plan will have a significant impact in moderating inflationary pressures if implemented. We request that the plan be urgently implemented.
“The government could review the tariff policies by granting concessionary import duty on intermediate products for industrialists. The same is true for investors in the logistics sector. Some of these measures are already contained in the draft Accelerated Economic and Sustainability Plan proposed by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy”