NACCIMA Urges FG To Urgently Arrest Heightened Inflationary Trend In Nigeria

From BLESSING OKEZIE, Lagos

The Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), has urged the federal government to take urgent steps to arrest current inflationary trend  and its causes in order to build on the recent modest gains and achieve the projected  2.5 percent economic growth this year.

NACCIMA Director General, Amb Ayoola  Olukanni, made this call in a recent press statement in which he lamented that Nigeria’s inflation figure as released by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has shown a surge from 17.33 percent in February to 18.17 percent  in March.

He also noted that rise in prices of food has maintained  a geometric progression trend, pointing out that NACCIMA has  on several occasions in recent past, warned that the upward trajectory of inflation is what will happen if  action is not taken to address underlining causes of the inflationary trends.

“Most significant in this regard is the issue of insecurity which is spreading across the country and its consequences on agricultural production especially by the small farm holders across  the  food belt of the nation; many of these farmers are either not able either to engage in active farming or evacuate their farm produce. The shortage of forex, depreciation in exchange rate and huge import bill have also all combined to produce the upward inflationary trend we are witnessing. And steps must be taken by government to arrest the trend”.

According to the NACCIMA DG, in all of these, perhaps most important is the issue of insecurity.

He observed that business and productive activities only thrive in a safe and secured environment, insisting that enduring solution must  be found to the problems of banditry and other sources of  insecurity across the country.

Olukanni, noted that the current low  productive capacities in various sectors of the economy have also been  due to the recent massive power outages and consequential effect on electricity supply to homes and industries especially SMEs.

He added that there is therefore the need to expedite action on the energy component under the Economic Sustainability Plan as part of the strategic options designed  to address the energy crisis.

He said to  address  food  inflation,  there must be significant  improvement in the area of road infrastructure to facilitate movement of farm produce and  goods across the country.

“This is  to strengthen the food supply chain and reduce cost of transportation from the farm to the market.

Suggesting other remedies to the situation, Olukanni, said more support should also be given to the SMEs in the  agribusiness sector as they are important in the quest to ensure food security and combat  food inflation.

“Movement of goods within the country should also not be disrupted by incessant roadblocks across our highways. Because this is another cause for the upsurge in inflation and price increases”, he stated.