Victor EzejaIn its quest to support efforts by the Federal Government to mitigate the raging food crisis, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has donated 2.15 million bags of fertilisers worth over N100 billion to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS) to boost food production across the country.
The CBN governor, Dr Olayemi Cardoso, made this known at the headquarters of the FMAFS in Abuja on Wednesday.
Speaking during the donation, Cardoso said the CBN places a significant emphasis on maintaining price stability as one of its primary mandates. He noted that “food prices is one of the crucial components of inflation, especially considering that a substantial portion of household expenditure in Nigeria is allocated to food and non-alcoholic beverages.”
“This reinforces the critical need to address food inflation as a pivotal aspect of managing overall headline inflation rates,” Cardoso added.
He further noted that while the CBN has been working towards curbing inflation, it is evident that in the short term, the inflationary pressures may persist, “predominantly driven by escalating food prices.”
“This is precisely why we convene today to strengthen our collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture with a shared objective of mitigating the surge in food prices.
“In alignment with our strategic shift towards focusing on our fundamental mandate, the CBN has veered away from direct quasi-fiscal interventions, and transitioned towards leveraging conventional monetary policy tools for executing monetary policies.
“In this light, we aim to extend our support and foster closer ties with ministries, departments and agencies that bear the mandate and expertise to undertake these critical initiatives.
“Consequently, we aim to enhance our partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, thereby bolstering your endeavours to enhance food productivity and security, and ultimately, curbing food inflation and fortifying our pursuit of price stability.
“In pursuit of these goals, we are delighted to announce the allocation of 2.15 million bags of fertiliser valued at over N100bn, which we are humbly handing over to the Ministry of Agriculture,” the CBN governor stated.
He further explained that the contribution from CBN is aimed at boosting food production and fostering price stabilisation within the agricultural sector.
He reiterated the apex bank’s commitment to prioritising price stability and instilling confidence in the Nigerian economy by upholding consumer price stability and ensuring a balanced foreign exchange market.
He added that despite challenges posed by inflation and currency depreciation, the bank remains resolute in its determination to surmount the obstacles.
Earlier in his remarks, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, welcomed the CBN governor and his team a and thanked him for the gesture.
While expressing his appreciation for the gesture by the CBN, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Aliyu Abdullahi, noted that the donation of the agricultural input came at a time when it is most needed by farmers who are already in the planting season.
He further stated that since he and minister Kyari assumed office one of their priorities has been to weed out fake portfolio farmers so that the real ones Cain benefits from agricultural transformation programmes executed by the Ministry for overall productivity.
“When we came on board, our major concern is how are we going to weed out the fake farmers. We really wanted to sure that those who own land and are ready to go to farm should be the ones taking the benefits because that is when the value of whatever we are doing will come home to support the goal that we have set.
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“A situation where there will be claims of so many thousands of hectares of land that are never planted yet support has gone towards that, I think is a thing of the past,” Aliyu stated.
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He assured the CBN governor that they have put in place a strong system to ensure that maximum benefit is derived by farmers from the gesture.
He added that the donation will also have a significant impact on reduction of fertilizer price
On his part, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu, thanked the CBN governor and his team for underscoring the need for strengthening collaboration between the bank and ministries, departments and agencies that execute programmes that would help in achieving its objectives.
Bagudu noted that the 2.15 million bags of fertiliser given to the Ministry of Agriculture will go a long way in helping farmers in food production.
He added that food crisis is a global phenomenon, and emphasised the need for support to players in different value chains in the agricultural sector with targeted interventions like the CBN has done to mitigate the problem.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
