Business

Nigeria spent N1.85tn on food import in nine months – Buhari economic aide

Published

4 years ago

January 20, 2021

A total of N1.85 trillion was spent by Nigeria on import food for nine months during the closure of international land borders last year, President Muhammadu Buhari’s chief economic adviser, Dr Doyon Salami, has said.

He said this was an indication that the nation lacked the capacity to feed itself.

Salami, an ex-member of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), is the Chairman of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council.

He spoke at the presentation of the National Economic Outlook for 2021 organised virtually by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) on Tuesday in Lagos.

He said, “Despite border closure, our national import of food amounted to N1.85 trillion between January and Sept 2020 – a 62 per cent increase when compared to same period 2019. This suggests a weakness in our ability to feed ourselves and raises the need to consider review of intervention policies in agriculture.”

He said agriculture had continued to decelerate, growing at 1.7 per cent year-to-date while consumer-sensitive sectors like manufacturing and distribution continue to contract, in double digits.

According to him, serious climatic concerns are undermining agricultural output with 2.5 million farmers being impacted by flooding in 2019.

He noted that preliminary assessments suggested that 2020 was worse with persistence into 2021 to adversely affect output and food prices.

Salami said during the period, Nigeria’s cumulative trade deficit amounts to N4.6 trillion ($12 billion).

He said Nigeria’s external imbalances were increasingly precarious, with continuing concern over exchange rate differentials.

He said uncertainty around foreign exchange – convergence, market-reflective rates and transparent determination mechanism, balance of payment imbalances were large and would remain key questions in 2021.

Salami said by the measure driving the value of the naira based on the naira/dollar inflation differential, the currency, should be trading around N439/$ at the official market.

The agricultural sector, ICT, real estate and oil and gas are vulnerable to a probable major adjustment to the foreign exchange rate, according to him.

Salami said official payment data showed that about $30 billion (almost 10 per cent of national economy) was obtained from sources outside the CBN, adding that the gap between the official and other exchange rates was a source for concern.

He said the COVID-19 shock of 2020 represented the third major shock to the Nigerian economy in 12 years.

He noted that ahead of the crisis, the Nigerian economy was contending with a set of pre-existing conditions such as macro Instability, stagflation – slow growth and rising inflation, pressure on households – in the form of rising inflation, unemployment, and poverty and pressure on corporate(s) margins – weak consumer and cost pressures.

He said there were also growing fiscal and external imbalances, monetary Policy distortions – the bifurcation of sovereign instruments leading to a distortion of the interest rate term structure.

Salami stated that with the impact of COVID-19, prices continued to rise – at the end of November 2020, overall inflation was 14.8 per cent with food prices increasing at 18.3 per cent when compared with November, 2019.

He, however, noted that the stay-at-home imposition implied greater use of telco/tech communication platforms.

“A health crisis morphed into an economic crisis resulting in humanitarian and in some cases, security challenges, a global development visiting great disruption to established norms – largely negative short-term impact but some positives – especially with technology deployment, the full impact of which will manifest in the years ahead,” he stated.

The international economic environment, he said, deteriorated sharply last year but recovery expected in this year, based on the capacity to suppress the virus through vaccination.

He also said transport and hospitality sectors were gravely affected by the lockdowns of April/May as well as by voluntary containment measures and/or imposed restrictions post-lockdown.

President/Chairman CIBN, Mr Bayo Olugbemi, represented by second Vice President Prof. Pius Olanrewaju, said the National Economic Outlook initiated in 2014 was designed to bring together relevant stakeholders together to discuss emerging and pertinent issues facing national and global economies and their implications for businesses.

Aviation

Disaster averted as bird strike hits Abuja-Lagos Air Peace flight

Published

8 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Trends Admin

Disaster averted as bird strike hits Abuja-Lagos Air Peace flight

An Abuja-Lagos flight was on Thursday aborted following a bird strike on the airplane belonging to Air Peace, forcing the authorities to ground the aircraft.

The bird strike experienced in the early hours reportedly prompted a ramp return to ensure the safety of passengers onboard.

All the passengers quickly disembarked and were calmed down before they were moved into another plane for the one-hour journey.

A bird strike is a collision between a bird and an aircraft, or other airborne animal, while the aircraft is in flight, taking off, or landing. And it can be a significant threat to aircraft safety.

Air Peace in a statement by its Head of Corporate Communications, Ejike Ndiulo, said the bird strike occurred at 6:30am, and all passengers disembarked normally.

The statement read, “We wish to inform our esteemed passengers that our Abuja- Lagos 06:30 flight experienced a bird strike before take-off, prompting a ramp return as a safety measure. All passengers disembarked normally.

“We have deployed a replacement aircraft for the affected flight in order to minimize disruptions, thus ensuring that passengers continue their journeys promptly.

“We appeal for the understanding of our valued passengers impacted by this development, as well as those on other flights that may experience delays.

“At Air Peace, we are committed to providing safe, comfortable, and reliable air travel for all our passengers.”

Business

NNPC achieves 1.8mbpd crude oil production

Published

8 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Trends Admin

NNPC achieves 1.8mbpd crude oil production

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) and its partners have revved up crude oil and gas production to 1.8million barrels per day (mbpd) and 7.4standard cubic feet per day (scfd).

The company which announced this at a press briefing said the feat was achieved in compliance with the mandate of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Speaking on the development, the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Mele Kyari, congratulated the Production War Room Team that anchored the production recovery process.

“The team has done a great job in driving this project of not just production recovery but also escalating production to expected levels that are in the short and long terms acceptable to our shareholders based on the mandates that we
have from the President, the Honourable Minister, and the Board,” Kyari explained.

Giving details of the efforts of the Production War Room, the Chief War Room Coordinator and Senior Business Adviser to the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Lawal Musa, disclosed that the feat was achieved through the collaborative efforts of Joint Venture and Production Sharing Contract partners, the Office of the National Security Adviser, as well as government and private security agencies.

NNPC achieves 1.8mbpd crude oil production

Business

FG gets fresh $134m loan from AfDB for agric projects

Published

9 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Trends Admin

FG gets fresh $134m loan from AfDB for agric projects

The Federal Government has secured a loan facility of $134million from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to help farmers boost seeds and grain production in the country.

This is contained in a statement issued by Anthonia Eremah, Chief Information Officer, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, on Thursday, in Abuja.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, made his know at the unveiling of the 2024/2025 National Dry Season Farming in Calabar, Cross River State capital.

Kyari explained that with the re-introduction of the national dry season farming to boost year-round agricultural production, the loan would be handy and guarantee national food security in the country.

The minister said the initiative is under the National Agricultural Growth Support Scheme-Agro Pocket (NAGS-AP) Project.

He said the federal government had declared an emergency on food production to enable all Nigerians to get easy access to quality and nutritional food at affordable rates.

Kyari also said government wants to use the agricultural sector for national economic revival through increase in production of some staple food crops such as wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, soybean, and cassava during both dry and wet season farming.

He added that 107,429 wheat farmers were supported under phase 1 of the 2023/2024 dry season, and 43,997 rice farmers under the second phase of the 2023/2024 dry season.