Nigeria’s government moves to regulate soaring food prices as economy bites
In a bid to address the escalating food prices in the country, the federal government is planning to establish a National Commodity Board as a solution to the problem.
The board will be charged with the responsibility of assessing and regulating food prices across the country.
Vice President Kashim Shettima disclosed this on Tuesday, February 13, 2024, during a two-day high-level strategic meeting on climate change, food systems and resource mobilization in Abuja.
“This board will continually assess and regulate food prices, maintaining a strategic food reserve for stabilizing prices of crucial grains and other food items,” he said.
The VP highlighted some of the efforts of this administration as part of the solution saying, “the potential food crisis has become immediate, medium, and long-term strategies.”
According to him, the short-term strategy entails revitalizing the food supply through specific interventions like the distribution of fertilizers and grains to farmers and households to cushion the effects of subsidy removal.
He sad FG plans to restore degraded lands, adding that President Bola Tinubu’s administration plans “to restore four million hectares, or nearly 10 million acres, of degraded lands within” the country.