After long delay, Tinubu okays imports to address Nigeria food crisis

The Nigerian government says it will import food and set aside tariffs and tax on commodities in a long-awaited measure to tackle unprecedented economic hardship that has seen millions unable to buy food for more than a year.

In measures announced Wednesday, the government will implement a 150-day duty-free import window for food commodities and will itself import 250,000 metric tons each of semi-processed wheat and maize, agriculture minister Abubakar Kyari said.

There will be no duties, tariffs, and taxes food commodities that include maize, husked brown rice, wheat, and cowpeas imported into the country by land and sea, he said.

Imported food commodities will be subjected to controlled pricing.

“We understand concerns about the quality of these imports, especially regarding their genetic composition. The government assures that all standards will be maintained to ensure the safety and quality of food items for consumption.

Expected But Ignored

The measures have long been canvassed by many Nigerians and even politicians are immediate ways of responding to a gripping cost-of-living crisis that significantly worsened over a year ago after President Bola Tinubu removed petrol subsidy and controls on the naira, leading to multiple devaluations.

The two policies drove the costs of all food items over 100%. The government’s official annual food inflation rate for May was 40.66%.

The government largely ignored calls to take action as people suffered. A post announcing the same measures on Monday online was immediately taken down. The presidency said they were yet to be approved.

The government has also yet to increase the minimum wage more than a year since its economic reforms. Talks with labour union has yielded no results.

“Since the government came into power, one was expecting that they would take agricultural measures very seriously considering the cry of the people on high food inflation, but no, they have to wait till pressure mount,” a user on X, formerly Twitter, said in response to the minister’s post.

Mr Kyari said the government will “ramp-up of production for the 2024/2025 farming cycle” and embark on “aggressive agricultural mechanization to reduce drudgery, lower production costs, and boost productivity.”

He said the government will work in the next 14 days with relevant teams to finalize the implementation of the plans, raising immediate concerns of a further delay.