Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, yesterday, called on the federal government to issue poor Nigerians with Food Vouchers, as a means of tackling the hunger in the nation.
In his remarks at the Nigerian delegation’s wrap-up press briefing, at the 2024 IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington DC, yesterday, the Senate Inter-Parliamentary Committee Chair said that Food Vouchers would be more effective in addressing the food supply challenges of poor Nigerians than the current Cash Transfers initiative of the present administration.
“5 million households representing 25 million people. As I have said, as the gains of the removal of petroleum subsidies and the foreign exchange gains get bigger, there will be a continuous emphasis on helping the poor and the most vulnerable.
Earlier, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, had said that efforts were being intensified to increase food production in the country and that with better harvests, the inflation rate would fall, given that food was responsible for 50 per cent of the Consumer Price Index.
His words, “One of the key things that we are focusing on at this particular time is ensuring that we dutifully collect the wet season harvest which is underway at the moment. In addition, we have diligently identified the small-scale farmers to ensure we have a good dry season harvest which will lead to increased outs of food, increased availability and increased affordability.
“We need to remember that food represents 50 percent of the Consumer Price index. So, success in this area will help to drive down inflation in addition to all the other measures that the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, using data, using evidence-based information to fight inflation is implementing.
“When you put all that together, it will go well to fight the rate of inflation which will automatically line things up as we have seen from the examples of advanced countries”.
Mr. Edun said that 600, 000 farmers were being assisted by the federal government to farm about 1 million hectares in November for planting wheat, as well as, in January and February when they would plant rice.
