Amidst the cost of living crisis caused by persistent increase in the prices of goods and services, the chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum and governor of Kwara State, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, has declared that food in Nigeria remains the most affordable in West Africa.
The governor, reacting to the recent protest in Niger state occasioned by the soaring prices of food commodities in a Nigeria, maintained that despite challenges, Nigeria maintains a competitive edge in food affordability compared to its neighbouring countries.
He said, “What I’ve also noticed is that in West Africa, food in Nigeria is the cheapest in West Africa and our neighboring countries
While lamenting the surge in food commodities, Abdulrazeez blamed the ugly reality on the devaluation of our Naira.
However, in devising ways out of this quagmire, he said, “What we need to do to mitigate that is to ramp up our production into high yields to make sure we feed West Africa; that’s our intention: feed ourselves 100 percent and export food to the world. That is the goal which we must achieve.”
According him, the ministry of agriculture is the right ministry to handle agricultural programmes. “It should be a one-stop shop and the previous programme domiciled in the central bank was a bit challenging and we could not achieve what we wanted to achieve. That’s part of the reason we’re here today.
“The issue of food security is paramount and we need to concentrate on what we’re doing and take advantage of the dry-season farming,” he said.
