FG Working To Cut Food Prices, Edun Says After Niger Protest

The federal government is working out a system to cut down the rising price of food prices in the country, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun has said.

The minister made this known during a meeting with a German Delegation to the country led by the Minister of Cooperation, Svenja Schulze in Abuja on Monday.

Edun made the remark amidst concern among Nigerians that much is not being done by the government to stop inflation, particularly as it affects basic household commodities.

The magazine reported a protest that took place in Minna, Niger state on Monday, where angry youths, in their reaction to the skyrocketing food prices in the country, blocked major streets in the state.

Also recently, some angry women stormed the streets in Kaduna state to protest the high cost of flour in the country.

Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president recently called on the government to address the difficult economic problems in the country, saying Nigerians have lost confidence in the administration.

He was immediately rebuffed.

Analysts insist that inflation has risen to as high as 30 percent in the last few months, quoting figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS.

Speaking yesterday during the meeting with the Germans, Edun said the federal government has rolled out various intervention to crash the cost of food.

The interventions, according to him include the provision of grains and fertilizers to farmers in other to increase farm produce.

The minister who spoke to journalists after the meeting, said President Bola Ahmed has approved other intervention in  the agricultural sector with the aim to address the problem of inflation.

He said the rising cost of food is “a concern to the government and everybody in Nigeria. Some of the major steps which i can point out that have been taken to address these issues. Because the issue of demand and supply, and a lot of emphasis have been placed on increasing agriculture production particularly.”

“The president has intervened in that area to provide grains, to provide fertilizers to farmers, to bring additional increase in rice, maize, wheat and cassava under additional acreage, additional production in order to bring out output, and thereby bring down prices, and that will help bring down inflation. And of course, we are in the middle of dry season farming, we are looking forward to a good season harvest that will help ameliorate food prices in particular, and the price level in Nigeria.”

Meanwhile, the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, warned yesterday that its members will be force to protest if nothing concrete was done by the government to address the cost of food in the country.