Eid El-Adha: Why There Is Food Inflation – Buhari
President Muhammadu Buhari has blamed the increase in the prices of food on flooding, middlemen, and insecurity, pledging to tackle the ravaging hardship in the country.
The President stated this on Monday while felicitating with Muslims on the occasion of the Eid El-Adha, calling for more patience among Nigerians.
Buhari in a statement issued by his spokesman, Garba Shehu, noted that these, as well as the COVID-19, have ballooned the prices of food items in Nigeria.
“Apart from the destruction caused to rice farms by floods, middlemen have also taken advantage of the local rice production to exploit fellow Nigerians, thereby undermining our goal of supporting local food production at affordable prices,” the President was quoted as saying.
“COVID-19 pandemic has taken a heavy toll on the economies of all countries, including Nigeria, in addition to the fact that floods have caused large scale destruction to agricultural farmlands, thereby impacting negatively on our efforts to boost local production in line with our policy to drastically reduce food importation.
“No government in our recent history has invested as heavily as we are doing to promote local production of about 20 other commodities, through the provision of loans and several other forms of support to our farmers.”
President Muhammadu Buhari speaks in Katsina State on July 19, 2021. Credit: State House
The Nigerian leader assured that as an elected President who enjoys the goodwill of the ordinary people, he would continue “to bring relief to Nigerians, including making fertilizer available at affordable prices to our farmers.”
While lamenting the deteriorating insecurity in the country, Buhari lamented that it “has produced severe and adverse effects on agriculture because farmers are prevented from accessing their farms by bandits and terrorists.
“Let me also use this opportunity to reassure Nigerians that we are taking measures to address our security challenges. We have started taking delivery of fighter aircraft and other necessary military equipment and hardware to improve the capacity of our security forces to confront terrorism and banditry.”
Nigeria’s Inflation Rate Declines To 17.75%
Nigeria’s consumer price index (CPI), a measurement of the rate of change in prices of goods and services, has declined to 17.75% in June from 17.93 recorded in May 2021.
The ‘Consumer Price Index Report for June’ released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday, means that the prices have continued to increase in June 2021. However, it was at a slower rate than it did in the last month.
“The CPI measures the average change over time in prices of goods and services consumed by people for day-to-day living,” the NBS noted in its report.
“The construction of the CPI combines economic theory, sampling and other statistical techniques using data from other surveys to produce a weighted measure of average price changes in the Nigerian economy.”
The country’s Headline Index, on a month-on-month basis, moved by 1.06% in June 2021. This figure was 0.05 percentage points higher than what was recorded in May 2021 – pegged at 1.01%.
There was also an increase in the urban inflation rate as it jumped by 18.35 %(year-on-year) in June 2021 from May 2021’s 18.51%. On the other hand, the rural inflation rate moved by 17.16% in June 2021 from 17.36% in May 2021.
The NBS report equally noted that the composite food index increased by 21.83 % in June 2021. This is against the 22.28% reported in May 2021.
The implication is that prices of food rose in the month under review but at a little slower pace than what was recorded in May 2021.
Increases in prices of bread, cereals, yam, and others, drove the food price index.
Deepened Woes Of The Poorest
Global food prices are rising at their fastest rate in a decade, exacerbating the troubles of the world’s most vulnerable nations as they struggle with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is worried that soaring prices could foment further social unrest in countries already mired in political turmoil.
Where Are Food Prices Headed?
According to the FAO, food prices were nearly 40 percent higher in May than a year ago, the sharpest increase since September 2011.
On a 12-month basis, the price of corn has skyrocketed by 88 percent, soybean by 73 percent, grain and dairy products by 38 percent, sugar by 34 per cent and meat by 10 percent.
“Obviously, it’s very concerning,” said Arif Husain, chief economist of the World Food Programme.
In 2007-2008, brutal increases in the price of basic foodstuffs sparked riots in a number of cities around the world. Peaking in 2010-2011, the price rises acted as a harbinger for the Arab Spring uprisings.
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