Rising Food Prices And Poor Household Food Security In Nigeria -By Babangida Mohammed

It is true that “What concerned the eye also concerns the Nose”. To say the least, I was flabbergasted with the sharpen rise in the price of foodstuffs. I was minded typically to write on the skyrocketing nature of food prices in Nigeria. The current sharp increase in food prices all over the country has raised a serious concerns about how poor families undergo hardship as a result of higher cost of foodstuffs. 

The National Bureau Of Statistics (NBS) reports that Nigeria annual inflation rate rose to 12.34 per cent in April, from 12.26 per cent recorded in the previous month. An investigation shows that the lock down of Abuja, Kano, Lagos, Kaduna, and ban on inter-state travel for almost two months largely impacted the rise in the food prices. Apart from Covid-19 related problems, the wholesalers and retailers used the period of this pandemic to create artificial inflation when goods are scarce in the market. 

This inhuman behavior of Nigerian businessmen  has made number of families that are facing hunger and starvation to rise to an unprecedented level as a great many of them have no food to eat for survival. It harm their real income, diminished their perspective of escaping poverty, depleting their assets base, reducing number of variety meals they consume, and essential non food expenditures such as health and education among other things. 

Rising foodstuffs price have a negative effects on all people, regardless of their status. However, the most affected are “Poor and unemployed” because they are unable to afford the basic necessities. 

Studies revealed that, “rise in food prices considered to be an enemy of progress, making poor people poorer, and pushing many household into debt, from which it was difficult to recover.” 

It is very important at this time of difficulty for the government and private sector of the economy to take actionable steps and price regulatory implementation road- map to address this serious problems in the country. The extreme poor are busy surviving while the business tycoons want to maintain and increase their profits, something need to be done to address this incompatible situation. 

A call to action The macroeconomics policy measures used in controlling inflation are : 

1. Monetary policy – Higher interest rates. This increases the cost of borrowing and discourages spending. This leads to lower economic growth and lower inflation.

2. Tight fiscal policy – Higher income tax and/or lower government spending, will reduce aggregate demand, leading to lower growth and less demand-pull inflation. 

3. Supply-side policies – These aim to increase long-term competitiveness, e.g. privatisation and deregulation may help reduce costs of business, leading to lower inflation.Others are : 

¶ Subsidizing food through price regulatory mechanism which will check into the  activities of the businesses, not only of staple foods is recommended in order for the poor to afford adequate food. 

¶ Job creation should be improved to reduce unemployment in families and increase their purchasing power and ability to cope with financial responsibilities. 

¶ Lastly investments in agricultural education for small farmers should be made, this will help in increasing food production and reduce the price of food as a result of its availability in the market. 

From the various monetary, fiscal and other measures discussed above, it becomes clear that to control inflation, the government should adopt all measures simultaneously. Inflation is like a hydra- headed monster which should be fought by using all the weapons at the command of the government.

Babangida Mohammad, potential political economist, write from Misau LG, Bauchi State. Can be reached at babangidamuhammadcaptain@gmail.com