An Agricultural Economist, Mr. Bright Okwu, says the Federal Government must sustain its investment in the real sector to boost productivity and tackle inflation rate.
Okwu, who is the National Coordinator of the Africa Farming Project, made the disclosure to the newsmen over the weekend in Lagos.
According to him, the Federal Government should continue to invest in various agriculture schemes to enhance food security.
“The government must support mechanised agriculture programmes to improve harvest.
“Food index is one of the cardinal factors responsible for the inflation rate,” he said.
He noted that the Federal Government must also support the completion of various private petroleum refineries to curb the inflation rate caused by imported refined products.
According to him, the Federal Government should sustain its key infrastructural development to stimulate growth in the economy.
“The government should partner with the private sector to build storage facilities to curb post-harvest losses,” he said, noting that post-harvest losses were among the major drawbacks to food sufficiency in the country.
However, Nigeria’s inflation rose year-on-year by 0.26 percentage point to 12.82 per cent in July 2020 from the 12.56 per cent of June 2020. This represents the 11th consecutive monthly rise of inflation since October 2019.
Similarly, food inflation rose to 15.48 per cent in July 2020 from 15.18 per cent the previous month.
The National Bureau of Statistics made the disclosure in its Customer Price Index report for July 2020.
