President Muhammadu Buhari during his Independence Day speech talked about the factors behind the high prices of food in Nigeria.
President Buhari while alleging that the nation’s food capacity had increased despite the farmer-herder crises that had upset food supply, he also said the high prices of food was caused by middlemen who “buy and hoard these essential commodities for profiteering.”
The President said, “Unfortunately, as our food production capacity has increased, food prices have been going up due to artificial shortages created by middlemen who have been buying and hoarding these essential commodities for profiteering.”
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Solution
The President also said that the Federal Government (FG) had made plans to end the “disruptive and unpatriotic hoarding activities,” as well as ensure that food prices are affordable for Nigerians.
“To address this, I am hereby directing the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to rehabilitate the National Food Reserve Agency and also work with security agencies, the Nigerian Commodity Exchange, and the National Assembly to find a lasting solution to these disruptive and unpatriotic hoarding activities,” he stated.
Food production
Nigeria’s President further revealed that the enhancement of food production would be better in Nigeria with some water projects.
“To further enhance food production, we have completed several new dams and are in the process of rehabilitating several River Basin Development Authorities to enhance groundwater supply for rainfed agriculture as well as surface water for irrigation agriculture.
“The water projects we completed between 2015 to 2020 have improved Nigerian’s access to potable water to 71% between 2015 and 2020. This means 12.5 million additional Nigerians now have direct access to potable water,” Buhari said.
