National Telescope national telescope newspaper
Nigerians may soon enjoy some respite from the cripplingly high cost of food prices, as the Federal Government has assured that it is working hard to address the issue.
The Minister of State for Agriculture, Aliyu Abdullahi, made this promise on Monday during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily program.
The latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics reveals that Nigeria’s food inflation rate skyrocketed to a staggering 40.1% in March 2024, making it difficult for millions of Nigerians to afford basic necessities.
However, Minister Abdullahi acknowledged the food insecurity challenge and reiterated the government’s commitment to tackling it head-on.
The minister declared that the federal government has implemented various programs and interventions aimed at reducing the prices of essential commodities. He assured Nigerians that these efforts will soon yield positive results, and the prices of food items will come down.7
He said, “You will see a lot of programs trying to dampen [reduce prices] the situation.
“Agriculture has a time frame. Now, a lot of production is ongoing. We are in the rainy season, and if you look at the fields, there is a lot of cropping going on. Those croppings are not food.
“They will only translate to food after three months. So, until then, this story you are talking about will continue.”
The minister added that the country had, in the past, relied more on rainy-season farming and needed to take the dry season more seriously.
“We realized over the past few years that we have not been taking our dry-season agriculture seriously,” he added.
