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The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has announced the allocation of 2.15 million bags of fertilizers worth over N100 billion to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso disclosed this during his recent visit to Abubakar Kyari, the minister of agriculture and food security in Abuja.
He noted that the move was to stabilize the nation’s food production capacity and curb inflation.
He said, “The Central Bank of Nigeria places a significant emphasis on maintaining price stability as one of its primary mandates, and food prices are a crucial component of inflation, especially considering that a substantial portion of household expenditure in Nigeria is allocated towards food and non-alcoholic beverages.
“In pursuit of these goals, we are delighted to announce the allocation of 2.15 million bags of fertilizer valued at over N100 billion, which we’re humbly handing over to the Ministry of Agriculture.”
Abubakar Kyari noted that the agriculture sector had recently been challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic, flooding, climate change, and the Naira redesign policy, which had adversely affected farmers at the grassroots.
“So those effects, conflicts, and insecurity there impacted agricultural production. But I’m happy to say that most of the things I mentioned are on the decline; insecurity is on the decline. Also, we are beginning to mitigate climate change by incentivizing farming activities in agriculture.
“Fertilizer constitutes the majority cost value in inputs in any agricultural production. So we are very happy, and we are extremely grateful for this gesture”, he said.
Recall that food inflation increased to 35.42 per cent in January.
The soaring prices of food had been worsened by insecurity in Nigeria.
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund has raised the alarm that nearly 25 million Nigerians are at risk of facing hunger in the country.
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