The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has stated that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s committee on food security has yet to impact the rising prices of food in Nigeria.
Muda Yusuf, the Director of CPPE, disclosed this in his statement reacting to Nigeria’s latest headline and food inflation in May 2024, which stood at 33.95 percent and 40.66 per cent, respectively.
CPPE lamented that the purchasing power of Nigerians has continued to drop amid the untamed inflationary pressure.
According to the economic think-tank group, drivers of Nigeria’s inflation include the depreciating exchange rate, surging transportation costs, logistics and supply chain challenges, forex market volatility, energy costs, climate change, insecurity in farming communities, seasonality of agricultural outputs, and structural bottlenecks to production.
“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,” he stated.
Recall that last year, in July, Tinubu declared an emergency on food security, but nearly a year later, the country’s food inflation has worsened.
NewsEcho reports that Nigeria’s food inflation surged to 40.66 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
