Living Costs Crisis: IMF Urges FG to Ease Suffering of Nigerians

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised the federal government to do everything within its power to ease the suffering of Nigerians, especially by addressing the rising food, drug, and transportation prices in the country.

Due to insecurity in the northern part of the country, the supply of food to the markets has significantly reduced.

Farmers have been unable to go to farms because of terrorists and bandits operating in the region, who demand payment of tax from farmers for planting and harvesting. The refusal to make this payment has resulted in death in some cases, according to reports.

Last month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the inflation rate rose by 29.90 per cent in January 2024, while food inflation jumped by 35.41 per cent in the same month.

The agency is expected to release the inflation numbers for February 2024 on Thursday, March 15, 2024 (tomorrow).

At a press briefing on Thursday, March 7, 2024, the Head of the Communications Department at the IMF, Ms Julie Kozack, said the global lender was aware of the hardship in the country due to the decision of President Bola Tinubu to end the payment of petrol subsidies and collapse the exchange rates in the currency market.

However, she advised the government to protect vulnerable citizens, saying the decision to pay stipends to them through the conditional cash transfer is a welcome development.

“An IMF team recently visited Nigeria, February 12 through 23, to discuss economic developments and policies, and this was part of our regular dialogue with both the government and the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“The team is preparing the detailed annual report on Nigeria’s economy and we also published a press release on Monday with some initial findings.

“Just summarising quickly those findings, we do recognize the difficult situation that many Nigerians face.

“Our advice is first and foremost to help ease this suffering related to higher food, drug, and transportation prices by strengthening social protection,” she said.

“With food price inflation reaching 35 per cent year over year in January, addressing food insecurity is the immediate priority.

“The recently approved targeted social safety net program will provide cash transfers to vulnerable households and this is also a very important step to easing the suffering. It will need to be fully implemented before the government can address costly implicit fuel and electricity subsidies in a manner that will ensure that low-income households are protected.

“The decision last week by the Monetary Policy Committee to further tighten monetary policy should also help contain inflation and contain pressures on the naira,” Ms Kuzack added.