‘ Naira devaluation making Nigeria’s food cheapest in West Africa’

CNigeria Governors Forum, Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq, has said the devaluation of naira has made Nigeria’s foods the cheapest in the West Africa region. Abdulrasaq, who led a team of four governors, namely the governors of Taraba, Kogi and Ondo states on a courtesy visit to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, said: “What we have now is that because of the devaluation of our naira, our food, being exported to West Africa countries, is the cheapest in the region today.”

He said neighbouring countries now trade in Nigeria’s food, using foodstuffs, like Soya beans, to earn foreign exchange for themselves.

While maintaining that the development is not bad, he said what should be done is to ramp up production and increase yield per hectare to enable Nigeria to feed West Africa, feed its citizens 100 per cent and export food to the world.

The governor, however, regretted that the country could not achieve much with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers Scheme, lamenting that the apex bank took over most of the functions of the agricultural ministry.

He said: “We have come to the realisation that we have a new Ministry of Agriculture, because over the last four years, before this administration, the engagement was not too productive because the CBN had taken over most of what the agricultural ministry used to do, our trips to the ministry at that time was not fruitful.

“But now we have seen a strong sense of engagement from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and that is why we are here today.

“The minister has come up with a programme on cassava, rice and maize and we want to engage in that programme and urgently make sure we improve on our yield and deliver to the Nigeria population.”

Earlier in his address, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, noted that ahead of the second phase of the Dry Season Food Production Programme, under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme and Agro- Pocket ( NASG- AP), he sent out an Expression of Interest to the Governors of the 36 States and FCT, to which responses have been encouraging.