By James Orji
Prof Benedict Oramah the President/Chairman of Afreximbank has disclosed that the bank has earmarked $4 billion to support food production and tackle commodity scarcity in Nigeria. The Afreximbank boss said the package is part of the Ukraine Crisis Adjustment Trade Financing Programme for Africa, UKAFPA launched in March.
Oramah disclosed this a virtual press conference on Tuesday, adding that the aid will assist Nigeria to deal with the current food crisis.
He spoke barely 24 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the release of 40,000 metric tonnes of grains from the Strategic Grains Reserve to help cushion the prevailing food shortage across the country.
The Afreximbank boss also statd that the bank will assist the country in the area of fuel importation, adding that Nigeria is not exempted from global economic crisis caused by covid 19 and recent Russian War against Ukraine.
According to him, “Nigeria is an African Union and Afreximbank member and should be able to access the facility as a member country. We supported fuel import and we are expanding that because there are urgent needs. There are discussions currently going on with regard to food also. We are supporting Nigeria.
“We are living in an unprecedented time. Since two years, the world has been going through major challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic, which became a global challenge and crisis in the first quarter of 2020, is still raging.
“Again, early this year, the Ukraine crisis set in. The crisis was magnified by sanctions that have been placed and the fact that the war affects Ukraine in many other ways.
“Russia and Ukraine are the bread baskets of the world; they produce most of the world’s wheat, corn, corn flour, and a number of food items. The same thing applies to agro-chemical items, especially fertiliser. Africa is very dependent in all these. Many countries in Africa import most of their wheat and fertiliser from Russia and Ukraine.
“Tourism arrivals from Russia and Ukraine support economies of many African countries. So, with the war, and the sanctions that followed, all of a sudden, all these became threatened. So, the effect has been rising food prices and challenging economic situation. And there is indication that if this continues, the continent might run back into recession, ” Oramah said.
He also called on international development partners to assist the bank to raise $15 billion need to cushion economic crisis in Africa.
He said: “We use this opportunity to call on the international community to join us in this effort. This is really a call to action because we see, everyday, request from companies from various countries. We have made our own modest contribution; we are determined to do all we can, working with partners to deal with this urgent short-term demand.
“We have good relationship with the Arab world and all the big financial institutions. We have our institutions in Africa also, which we will approach to pull resources together. We also get support from European institutions. We also have structures to increase our capacity to be able to get more than $4 billion.”
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Muhammad Abubakar on Tuesday, informed journalists in Abuja that President Buhari directed the grains to be released to cushion the effects of rising prices of commodities, especially during the Easter and Ramadan period.
Abubakar said 12,000 metric tonnes of the grains would be released to the Ministry of Humanitarian, Disaster Management and Social Development for distribution.
The distribution, he said, would be done along the model used in early 2020 during the Covid-19 lockdown, where FG distributed 70,000 metric tons of assorted food items across some states and the Federal Capital Territory.
He said, “I’m here this afternoon as a result of summoning by His Excellency, Mr. President, President Muhammadu Buhari. He directed and approved the release of grains from our Strategic grain Reserve by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
“This is to cushion the effect of some of the issues we are facing with high prices of commodities across the country and the festivities-Ramadan, Easter, Sallah-so that there will be a little cushion for the people during these festivities,” the minister said.
