Lagos, July 22, 2023: Some financial experts have called on the Federal Government to start full implementation of the state-of- emergency on food security, to curb the rising cost of living.
The government made the declaration to boost food output, rising cost of living and contain the high inflation rate.
The experts spoke on Thursday in Lagos that one of the ways of implementing the declaration was by granting more support to local manufacturers of farm equipment and tools.
A Lecturer of Economics at Pan Atlantic University, Mr Austine Nwaeze, said the government could also tackle the inflation rate by executing the new policy.
“The government should commence the all year round farming in the country, with agricultural extension support for farmers.
“This involves mapping out large hectares of land which will be used for mechanised agriculture and food processing,” Nwaeze said.
He noted that, similarly, the government could adopt polices that will encourage domestic production to effectively reverse rising cost.
“As this will ensure that farmers and other cottage industries will source for production inputs locally and strengthen their domestic capacity,”Nwaeze said.
Also, founder, Independence Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Mr Sunny Nwosu, said the government should provide key infastructue that would stimulate production.
“The government could ensure that more reliable electricity is available in all industrial hubs in the country.
“This will ensure they manufacturers operate optimally and become centers of innovation,” Nwosu said.
He added that the government could check inflation by encouraging more businesses to establish privately-owned petroleum refinery plants.
“This will ensure the country achieve self sufficiency and conserve foreign exchange, currently expended on importation petroleum products,” Nwosu said.
Similarly, the CEO, Center for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Dr Muda Yusuf, called on the government to address insecurity headwinds.
He said that insecurity was partially fuelling the food induced inflation.
“Both state and federal governments need to partner more to bring insecurity under control, so that the farmers can fully return to their farms and concentrate on farming.
“This will ensure uninterrupted supply of farm produce to urban areas and the food induced inflation will abate,” Yusuf said.
He, however, noted that the sudden increase in the cost of transport caused by the total removal of subsidy on refined petroleum was also partially responsible for the surge in cost of living.
Yusuf added that the Federal Government needed to check the depreciation of the Naira, saying that this was also responsible for the rise in inflation rate.
“Both the fiscal and monetary authorities need to align more to bring the situation under control,” he said.
The Headline inflation rate rose to 22.79 per cent in June, relative to May headline inflation which was 22.41 per cent.
In its CPI and Inflation Report for June, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) noted that the figure indicated a 0.38 percentage point increase when compared to May headline inflation rate.
On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 4.19 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in June 2022, which was 18.6 per cent.
According to NBS, the headline inflation was driven by food inflation, which stood at 25.25 per cent year-on-year, higher by 4.65 per cent relative to 20.6 per cent recorded in June 2022.
