By Ahmed Rahma
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, on Tuesday disclosed that insecurity in food-producing parts of the country was responsible for the rising inflation.
Mr Emefiele lamented that insecurity in many food-producing areas of the country was a major contributing factor to the high cost of food items, a major driver of the inflation rate.
He tasked President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently address the situation by joining forces with relevant stakeholders before things get out of hand.
The apex bank chief, while addressing reporters yesterday in Abuja after the end of the second Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, noted that the members of the panel were concerned with “the continued uptick in inflationary pressure for the 18th consecutive month as headline inflation continued on an upward to 17.33 per cent at the end of February 2021 from 16.47 per cent in January 2021.”
“This increase continues to be attributed to both food and other core components of inflation.
“This specific uptick in food inflation was the major driving factor for the uptick in headline inflation,” he declared.
“This was due to the worsening security situation in many parts of the country, particularly the food-producing areas where farmers faced frequent attacks by herdsmen and bandits in their farms,” he further said.
Mr Emefiele said while the bank was making significant intervention in the agricultural sector, the rising insecurity was limiting expected outcomes in terms of supply to the markets, adding that the situation was a major contributory factor to the rise in food prices.
He pointed out that the inflationary trend was also worsened by the hike in the petrol pump price, the upward adjustment of electricity tariff and depreciation in the Naira’s value.
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