The Nigerian government plans to establish a national body to regulate food prices as citizens grapple with the country’s worst economic hardship in a generation.
The government will create the National Commodity Board with the mandate to “assess and regulate food prices”, Vice President Kashim Shettima said Tuesday.
The body will also maintain a strategic food reserve for stabilizing prices of crucial grains and other food items, Mr Shettima said in Abuja at a two-day meeting on climate change, food systems and resource mobilization, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
It is not clear how the agency will regulate food prices in the country. Last week, a federal court directed the government to fix the prices of goods and petroleum products.
Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa of the FCT in Lagos ordered the government to fix the price of milk, flour, salt, sugar, bicycles, and their spare parts, matches, motorcycles and their spare parts, motor vehicles and their spare parts as well as petroleum products.
The order was given on a case brought by lawyer and activist, Femi Falana, who sought the implementation of the Price Control Act. The ruling has been criticised by some as not being in consonance with Nigeria’s espoused free market economy.
Not quick relief
Nigerians are grappling with the worst cost of living crisis in decades after the government scrapped fuel subsidy and devalued the naira, with inflation reaching a fever pitch in December 2023, soaring to a staggering 28.9%, the highest level in 27 years.
Food inflation jumped to 33.93% – a stark reminder of the everyday struggles faced by millions across the country.
Vice President Shettima spoke of the government’s interest in ensuring food security and highlighted ongoing policy reforms by the administration to ensure food and water availability, as well as affordability.
However, the government’s short-term response to the hardship, as he stated during the programme, offers no promise of speedy relief for many families.
He said the government’s solution to potential food crisis “has become immediate, medium, and long-term strategies.”
“The short-term strategy entails revitalising food supply through specific interventions like the distribution of fertilizers and grains to farmers and households to cushion the effects of subsidy removal,” he said.
“It also entails fostering collaboration between the Ministries of Agriculture and Water Resources for efficient farmland irrigation, ensuring year-round food production; and addressing price volatility by establishing a National Commodity Board.
“This board will continually assess and regulate food prices, maintaining a strategic food reserve for stabilizing prices of crucial grains and other food items.”
More of the same
The outlines do not sound any different from the promises the previous government made and failed for years. Mr Shettima said the administration was investing in the restoration of degraded land.
According to him, there is an ongoing plan to restore 4 million hectares, or nearly 10 million acres of degraded lands within the nation’s borders as its contribution to the AFR100 Initiative.
“I wish to assure you that we will engage our security architecture to protect the farms and the farmers so that farmers can return to the farmlands without fear of attacks,” he said without offering specifics.
“We won’t only make it safe for farmers to return to their farms, but we will also ensure the activation of land banks.
“There is currently 500,000 hectares of already mapped land that will be used to increase the availability of arable land for farming, which will immediately impact food output.”
Mr Shettima said the Tinubu administration was collaborating with mechanisation companies to clear more forests and make them available for farming.
He said the Central Bank of Nigeria will also continue to play a major role in funding the agricultural value chain.
“We will deploy concessionary capital to the sector, especially towards fertilizer, processing, mechanization, seeds, chemicals, equipment, feed, labour, among others.
“The concessionary funds will ensure that food is always available and affordable, thereby having a direct impact on Nigeria’s Human Capital Index (HCI).
“This administration is focused on ensuring the HCI numbers, which currently rank as the 3rd lowest in the world, are improved for increased productivity.”
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