Don’t give money for food importation – Buhari orders CBN
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| CBN must not give money to import food. Already about seven states are producing all the rice we need. We must eat what we produce |
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) not to give any money for food importation.
The Nigerian leader promised that administration will keep a keen eye on food inflation in 2021.
Buhari spoke at the fifth regular meeting with the Presidential Economic Advisory Council held on Tuesday at the State House in Abuja.
“The CBN must not give money to import food. Already about seven states are producing all the rice we need. We must eat what we produce”, he said.
Buhari wondered where the country would have found itself by now in view of the devastating economic crisis brought about by COVID-19 if the country had not embraced agriculture.
He lamented the dependence on petrol at the expense of agriculture.
The President observed that the oil industry is currently in turmoil.
“We are being squeezed to produce at 1.5 million barrels a day as against a capacity to produce 2.3 million. At the same time, the technical cost of our production per barrel is high, compared to the Middle East production,” he said.
Buhari emphasized the place of agriculture in the efforts to restore the economy but agreed that measures must be put in place to curtail inflation in the country:
He said the government will continue to encourage the people to go back to the land.