Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, says
President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has achieved food security and the
scaling up of made-in-Nigeria products.
The minister said this on Thursday in Abuja at the 9th edition
of the ”PMB administration; scorecard series (2015-2023)”.
According to Mohammed, in spite of the crises affecting the
cost of living globally, the administration had done well since assuming office
in the area of self-sufficiency in most basic needs.
“I am sure many of us have seen video clips of empty
supermarket shelves in the Western world, especially in the wake of the
COVID-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war and the economic uncertainty, which have
all combined to disrupt global supply chains,” he said.
“Long before these
crises, however, President Muhammadu Buhari had, in a statement that has now
turned out to be prescient, admonished Nigerians to grow what they eat and eat
what they grow.
“Then, many neither understood the importance of that
admonition nor appreciated its relevance.
“Well, it turned out that the consequence of that statement
made Nigerians look inward and relied less on imports.
“This has saved
Nigerians from hunger, especially during the prolonged global lockdown, when
exporting nations shut their ports and borders and nations that relied on
imports were struggling to meet their needs.”
Mohammed also said the worst could have happened if the
country had, during the period of the crises, relied on imports to feed itself.
The minister added that the presidential fertiliser
initiative was a successful policy that made the production and distribution of
fertiliser to the farmers effective.
According to him, the number of fertiliser blending plants
in the country increased from 10 in 2015 to 142 and the increase in the number
of rice mills also from 10 in 2015 to 80 integrated rice mills.
This, he added to have aided food sufficiency.
“Our farmers are now part of our economy. Companies and
factories are coming up to manufacture, process and distribute food,” he added.
“If you visit our markets and supermarkets today, what you
will see mostly are ‘made-in-Nigeria’ products. This is a huge progress in such
a short time.”
Speaking further on the high prices of food items, the
minister assured that as the country engaged more in local food production and
moved closer to achieving food security, prices would begin to fall.
“For now, we must
acknowledge the success we have achieved in the area of food production and in
scaling up made-in-Nigeria products’’ he said.
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