Adesina warns Nigeria on food imports

THE president of the African Development Bank Group, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has expressed concern that Nigeria's government's decision to permit massive food imports could jeopardise the country's agricultural sector.

This comes after Nigeria’s Minister for Agriculture, Abubakar Kyari, announced on July 10 that the Federal Government would suspend duties, tariffs, and taxes on the importation of maize, husked brown rice, wheat, and cowpeas through the country’s land and sea borders for 150 days.

Speaking on the theme ‘Food security and financial sustainability in Africa: The role of the Church’, Adesina said Nigeria “must feed itself with pride,” warning, “a nation that depends on others to feed itself, is independent only in name.”

He warned that the policy could undermine all the hard work and private investments that have gone into Nigeria’s agriculture sector.

“Nigeria cannot rely on the importation of food to stabilise prices. Nigeria should be producing more food to stabilize food prices, while creating jobs and reducing foreign exchange spending, that will further help stabilise the naira.

“Nigeria cannot import its way out of food insecurity. It must not be turned into a food import-dependent nation,” said the AfDB president.

According to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), Nigeria tops the list of countries with the highest number of people in acute food insecurity, with 31.8 million individuals affected, placing it at the top of the global rankings.

Africa also accounts for nearly a third of the more than 780 million people worldwide who are hungry.