Flooding: CBN to deploy grains reserve to check food inflation

Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), says the apex bank will fall back on its strategic grains reserve to check food inflation.

Emefiele said this on Tuesday while speaking to newsmen in Abuja.

He said the idea is to moderate food prices that could be occasioned by recent flooding across the country.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, food inflation rose to 23.72 percent in October 2022, 5.39 percent higher than the rate recorded in October 2021 (18.34 percent). The rise in food inflation was caused by high prices of bread and cereals, food products, potatoes, yams and other tubers, oil and fat, according to the bureau.

“The flooding of this year happens to be the worst in the last five years in Nigeria. 32 out of the 36 states of the country were affected adversely by the floods,” NAN quoted him as saying.

“This meant that farmers lost their crops, prices of food and other agricultural produce will go up.

“From our side at the CBN and the federal government, we have our strategic reserve, particularly for rice and for grains like maize, which we will use to moderate prices.”

He said the apex bank had been maintaining the strategic reserve for the past three years, adding that it was yielding results.

He added that said the CBN would also support dry season farming to further check food inflation.

“Since the flooding is beginning to recede, we will aggressively go into dry season programme,” he added.

“This will make sure that the impact of the rising food prices does not linger for too long so that we can have control of prices of agricultural produce and other consumer goods.”