The Federal Government of Nigeria has on Wednesday expressed concern over the increasing rate of inflation, most especially the rising cost of food prices across the country.
In a weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, it was disclosed that the federal government would convene a meeting of the National Food Security Council to address the worrisome issue of rising cost of food prices.
The Minister of Finance said the federal government has also lined up concrete actions to ensure the growth of some sectors of the nation’s economy that have refused to grow in recent times.
She said the Federal Executive Council gave approval for the National Food Security Council to meet “very quickly to address the issue of food inflation, and also provide a plan and some methods in which we can reduce the cost of food to support improved food prices for the citizenry.”
The minister said the council considered a report from the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning for the first quarter of 2022 GDP report which shows that the Nigerian economy has grown by 3.1% in the first quarter of 2022 as against a growth of 0.5% in the first quarter of last year.
“We’re very mindful of the fact that unless we have most of the sectors growing especially the growth in the jobs impacted sectors, that this growth that is positive will not be directly felt by the people.
“We also reported to Council that inflation has started going upward to the extent that the monetary authorities of the Central Bank have had to adjust the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) to 13% at the last Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting and that’s an attempt to manage the cost of inflation,” she said.
