President Muhammadu Buhari has said his administration would keep a keen eye on food inflation in the new year, 2021.
A statement by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, also reiterated that a strong directive had been given to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) not to give any money for food importation.
Speaking at the fifth regular meeting with the Presidential Economic Advisory Council held on Tuesday at the State House in Abuja, President Buhari directed that the CBN “must not give money to import food” while noting that “already, about seven states are producing all the rice we need – we must eat what we produce”.
While taking note of the strides made in agricultural production following the Federal Government’s programme of diversification which discourages over-reliance on oil, President Buhari wondered where the country would have found itself by now in view of the devastating economic crisis brought about by COVID-19 if the country had not embraced agriculture.
“Going back to the land is the way out. We depend on petrol at the expense of agriculture. Now the oil industry is in turmoil.
“We are being squeezed to produce at 1.5 million barrels a day as against a capacity to produce 2.3 million.
“At the same time, the technical cost of our production per barrel is high, compared to the Middle East production,” he said.
The president emphasised the place of agriculture in the efforts to restore the economy but agreed that measures must be put in place to curtail inflation in the country.
He added: “We will continue to encourage our people to go back to the land. Our elite are indoctrinated in the idea that we are rich in oil, leaving the land for the city for oil riches.
“We are back to the land now. We must not lose the opportunity to make life easier for our people.
“Imagine what would have happened if we didn’t encourage agriculture and closed the borders. We would have been in trouble.”
The meeting, which was conveyed to review and reflect on the global and domestic economy in the outgoing year, was attended by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, as well as Ministers of Finance and Humanitarian Affairs.
In specific terms, the meeting noted the sharp deterioration in the international economic environment and its impact on Nigeria’s continuing but fragile economic recovery.
It was concerned that Nigeria’s economic growth has continued to be constrained by obvious challenges, including infrastructural deficiencies and limited resources for government financing.
It emphasised the need to make the private sector of the economy the primary source of investment rather than the government.
The meeting reviewed the progress towards structural reforms in response to the economic crisis, including the institution of the Economic Sustainability Plan, the changes in electricity tariff, fuel pricing regime, the partial reopening of land borders, the movement towards unification of exchange rates and budgetary reforms through Finance Bill 2020 and 2021.
It agreed that to prepare the country for the challenges ahead, it is imperative to ensure macro-economic stability, create certainty, and rebuild investor confidence in the economy.
It emphasised the need to deepen structural reforms initiated by the administration as a basis for stimulating investments from domestic and international sources with a view to raising productivity in key sectors of the economy.
