By Dipo Olowookere
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been directed not to make foreign exchange (forex) available to importers of food items and fertilisers into the country.
This directive was given to the apex bank by President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday during the National Food Security Council meeting held at the State House in Abuja.
He said anyone willing to remain in the importation food items or fertilisers should source for forex independently and not from the nation’s external reserves, which, according to findings by Business Post, has declined to $35.780 billion on Wednesday from $35.788 billion on Tuesday.
“Use your money to compete with our farmers, instead of using foreign reserves to bring in compromised food items to divest the efforts of our farmers,” Mr Buhari was quoted as saying at the gathering by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu.
The President’s spokesman further quoted his boss as saying that, “We have a lot of able-bodied young people willing to work and agriculture is the answer. We have a lot to do to support our farmers.”
“From only three operating in the country, we have 33 fertiliser blending plants now working. We will not pay a kobo of our foreign reserves to import fertilizer. We will empower local producers,” Mr Buhari declared.
The President also directed blenders of fertiliser to directly convey products to state governments so as to skip the cartel of transporters undermining the efforts to successfully deliver the products to users at reasonable costs.
Also at the meeting, the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Sabo Nanono, informed the gathering that the nation expects a bumper harvest of food items despite floods in the north and drought in the south, noting that the latest market surveys to show that the recent hike in the price of commodities was being reversed.
On her part, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, outlined measures introduced by the administration to tackle the unprecedented challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic on the nation as contained in the Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP).
Among others, the Minister highlighted that the government will facilitate the cultivation of 20,000 to 100,000 hectares of new farmland in every state and support off-take of agro-processing to create millions of direct and indirect job opportunities.
She said to ease existing financial hardships among the people, the government is coming up with low-interest loans for mechanics, tailors, artisans, petty traders and other informal business operators.
The Minister added that the federal government will equally provide support to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to help them keep their employees and boost local manufacturing.
Mrs Ahmed explained that from the recently approved N2.3 trillion stimulus recommended by the NESP, there will be an expansion of broadband connectivity to boost job opportunities in the digital economy, a planned expansion of the National Social Investment Programmes including an increase in the number of beneficiaries such as the cash transfer beneficiaries, N-Power Volunteers, the Market Moni and Trader Moni schemes.
Business Post gathered that today’s meeting was chaired by President Buhari with other key members of the council, including the Vice Chairman of the council and Governor of Kebbi State, Mr Atiku Bagudu; the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari; and a Governor from each of the six geo-political zones – Jigawa, Plateau, Taraba, Ebonyi, Lagos and Kebbi.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka