Buhari Directs Rehabilitation Of National Food Reserve Agency To Curb High Food Prices

In a bid to check the rising prices of food across the country, President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to rehabilitate the National Food Reserve Agency.

It also directed the Ministry to also work with security agencies, the Nigerian Commodity Exchange, and the National Assembly to find a lasting solution to the disruptive and unpatriotic hoarding activities that has made the price of food to rise astronomically.

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The President gave this directive in a national broadcast to mark Nigeria’s 61st Independence Anniversary celebration.

Figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that food inflation rose by 20.30 percent in August 2021 compared to 21.03 percent in July 2021.

The rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, milk, cheese and egg, oils
and fats, potatoes, yam and other tuber, food product, meat and coffee, tea and cocoa.

The President said the Agricultural sector remains key to his administration’s economic diversification efforts, as the sector has been a consistent driver of the non-oil sector.

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The sector contributed 22.35 per cent and 23.78 per cent to the overall Gross Domestic Product in the first and second quarter of 2021.

He said the federal government in recent times, has seen significant private sector investments in almost all areas of the agricultural value chain, noting that these investments have continued even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unfortunately, he lamented that as the country’s food production capacity has increased, food prices have been going up due to artificial shortages created by middlemen who have been buying and hoarding these essential commodities for profiteering.

To address this, he said, “I am hereby directing the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to rehabilitate the National Food Reserve Agency and also work with security agencies, the Nigerian Commodity Exchange, and the National Assembly to find a lasting solution to these disruptive and unpatriotic hoarding activities.

“To further enhance food production, we have completed several new dams and are in the process of rehabilitating several River Basin Development Authorities to enhance ground water supply for rained agriculture as well as surface water for irrigation agriculture.”

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The President said the water projects that his administration has completed between 2015 to 2020 have improved Nigeria’s access to potable water to 71% between 2015 and 2020.

This, he noted, means that 12.5 million additional Nigerians now have direct access to potable water.

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