FG’s emergency measures not tackling food crisis – Economists

As the Federal Government continues to initiate several measures to reduce the country’s food shortage crisis and hunger, economists have explained why such interventions are not solving the problem.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s food inflation rate hit a record high of 40.66 per cent in May 2024, surpassing the previous month’s 40.53 per cent increase.

This surge represents the largest year-on-year increase in food prices since records began in 1996.

In 2023, the Food and Agriculture Organisation projected that no fewer than 2.6 million Nigerians in Borno, Sokoto, Zamfara states, and the FCT might face a food crisis between June and August 2024.

In response to the food issue, on the 11th of July 2023, President Bola Tinubu declared a state of emergency on food security as the Federal Government stepped up efforts to tackle food inflation following the removal of fuel subsidy.

In a report by The PUNCH, a statement obtained from the X account of the spokesman for Vice President Kashim Shettima, Stanley Nkwocha, after inaugurating the Presidential Food Systems Coordination Unit at the behest of President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Shettima said Nigeria was facing a rare food security crisis that urgently requires the ideas and resources of stakeholders.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Saturday PUNCH, an economist, Aliyu Ilias, expressed doubt about the impact of the state of emergency declared on food, noting that it had not yielded significant results within the expected timeframe.

He said, “The state of emergency declared on food hasn’t yielded any meaningful result because within one year we should be seeing the ripple effect.

“However, with the declaration of a state of emergency on food since that time, we should have supply chain problems solved. Our major problem isn’t even a food crisis; the major problem is the food supply chain.

“How will most people who have food in Bauchi State convey it to other parts of the country? They need transport because the amount of food being bought isn’t the same as how it’s being transported to the consumers. They need to find a solution to the supply chain.”

Another financial expert and economist, Ridwan Abdulmumeen, said the government’s intervention might not work as the necessary solutions to the existing problems were not provided.

He said, “Because they aren’t providing solutions to the reasons for the food inflation. First is insecurity; farmers can’t farm in the North and Middle Belt because of insecurity. Those that farm, risk their lives doing that.”