The Federal Government has decried the growing inflation in Nigeria, saying mechanisms have been activated to check the trend.
According to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, President Muhammadu Buhari, has directed the National Food Security Council to brainstorm and make recommendations on the way forward.
Ahmed made this known at the House of Representatives in Abuja on Wednesday while appearing before the committee on finance to defend the budget proposed by the ministry in the 2023 Appropriation Bill.
Chairman of the committee, James Faleke, had asked about efforts being made by the government to arrest the rising inflation in the country, which he said had become a concern to many Nigerians.
Responding, the minister blamed it on various factors, saying, “On inflation, it is a very serious situation, where Nigeria’s inflation is now 23 per cent. The inflation in Nigeria has a number of components. One of them is imported inflation – occurrences in other countries also affect Nigeria. For example the war between Ukraine and Russia has an impact on Nigeria in the sense that some of the inputs for food production are affected.
“Also the decisions taken by the Central Banks in the USA and Europe on monetary tightening have also an impact on their own level of inflation; that also affects our country. But in Nigeria, we also have food inflation and because of the high cost of diesel, we find this showing up in food prices. So, when farmers produce their goods and they have to transport them to markets, the increasing cost of transportation is impacting on the food.
“What the Central Bank of Nigeria is doing is continuing to monitor inflation by tightening money and mopping up liquidity.”
Ahmed added, “On the side of the government, the President has authorised the National Food Security Council and we have held a meeting on how some support will be provided. The committee will be meeting again in the next couple of days to provide recommendations to Mr President.”
The minister also said more scanners had been procured to be installed at ports and borders to discourage use of other countries’ ports. She also stated that all government independent revenues had been remitted to the Treasury Single Account.
She said, “On why our ports are not attractive, it is a very big problem. The ports’ congestion and the unfortunate reality is that a lot of importers prefer to go to our neighbours. On the measures we are taking as the Ministry of Finance, we have provided and bought some very large scanners. Our assessment is that it will help to fasten the clearing process and decongest the ports.
“The Nigeria Ports Authority, on their own, is trying to reorganise ports to attain better efficiency, including control of entry and exit to the ports.”
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