BY VICTORIA ONU, ABUJA
THE Central Bank of Nigeria has said that Nigerians have no reason to panic over rising food prices as there are adequate arrangements to end food scarcity in the country.
The regulator also issued warnings to hoarders and smugglers whose activities are triggering the rising food prices.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, said this on Wednesday during the launch of 13 rice pyramids with a cumulative of 200,000 bags of 50kg rice under the Anchor Borrowers Progamme in Gombe State.
He said the apex bank would make life difficult for those hoarding commodities because they want to take advantage of the prevailing scarcity.
The comment comes amid rising inflation in the country which has hit 17.33 per cent in February 2021.
The country’s inflation is primarily driven by the rising food prices currently at 21.79 per cent in February.
But with the bank’s efforts to drive down prices using monetary policy tools and injections in the Agric sector, Emefiele believes that prices of food, especially rice, will crash.
The apex bank boss said, “I therefore say there is no reason for anybody to panic that food prices are high. We know they are already coming down, we will make life difficult for those who feel that they want to hoard commodities because they want to take advantage of scarcities.
“We will be cultivating almost one million hectares during the dry season luckily the dry season has brought up two seasons for rice, so we will not have rice scarcity again.
“For those who think they can continue to smuggle rice into the country, we are sending a warning signal to you that you should desist from smuggling. Smuggling undermines the progress of the economic plan.”
Emefiele said the activities of both hoarders and smugglers were frustrating the Economic Sustainability Plan of the government.
Apart from their activities, Emefiele also decried the challenges faced by farmers who are unable to farm due to insurgency and banditry as another issue with the plan.
He, however, reiterated CBN’s commitment to finance one million hectares of rice farms over the dry season.
According to the governor, the CBN will continue to ensure integration of farmers in the country’s economic plan.
He revealed that the FG had been able to attract huge private sector investments in the areas of rice mills, adding that the total capacity of the Integrated Rice Mill, which had doubled over the last five years.
“That is the reason I said we are now improving in food sufficiency. This symbolic event reinforces the massive potential in Nigeria agriculture and encourages more private sector investment in the agricultural value chain,” he added.
As motivation to farmers, Emefiele said the CBN would provide five million homes with electricity using solar panels.
He said, “Under this programme, any farmer under our Anchor Borrowers Programme is eligible to get a solar home system that will provide electricity to power their essential home appliances.
“Repayment of the electricity consumed under this solar home system being provided to our farmers under our Anchor Borrowers Programme can be repaid using the produce from the farm just like today.”
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