Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Rivers, and Ondo are the top five states that recorded the highest food inflation in 2023, according to a BusinessDay analysis of the latest Consumer Price Index report.
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The report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that the average food inflation rate for Kogi was 34.2 percent, followed by Kwara at 33.3 percent, Lagos had 32.3 percent, Rivers was 31.3 percent, and Ondo at 31.2 percent.
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“Kogi has a problem of herdsmen and bandits which has deprived the farmers from going to their farms causing high food inflation in the state,” Femi Oke, chairman, Lagos/Southwest zone of All Farmers Association of Nigeria, said.
He said Kwara’s high food inflation can be attributed to ecological problems which as rainfall, making farmers leave their farms.
For Lagos, AfricanFarmer Mogaji, chief executive officer of X-Ray Farms Consulting, said the state has high inflation because more people are migrating to it.
He added that the logistics of food items into Lagos involves the majority of the spoilt food items, making the cost spread to others that are not spoilt.
“The price of food items is getting expensive in Lagos because of wastage. Also, the economy is biting on people because everything is going up,” he said.
The states with the lowest food inflation are Sokoto, Jigawa, Borno, Zamfara, and Kebbi which recorded 23 percent, 23.2 percent, 24.1 percent, 24.8 percent, and 24.9 percent respectively.
In terms of the states with the highest general inflation rate, Kogi, Lagos, Rivers, Ondo and Bayelsa recorded 28.6 percent, 27.4 percent, 27.3 percent, 27 percent and 26.9 percent respectively.
States with the least were Borno (20.6 percent), Sokoto (22 percent), Jigawa (22.4 percent), Taraba (22.6 percent) and Nasarawa (22.9 percent).
Over the past seven months, the country’s inflation rate has accelerated to the highest in at least 20 years largely on the back of Federal Government reforms including the removal of petrol subsidy and naira devaluation
According to the NBS, inflation rose to 28.92 percent in December from 28.20 percent in November. Food inflation, which constitutes 50 percent of the inflation rate, rose to 33.93 percent from 32.84 percent in the previous month.
“Economic conditions in Nigeria were challenging in 2022, as a depreciated local currency impacted inflation. However, conditions worsened in 2023 as demonetisation policies and fuel price hikes exacerbated inflation,” analysts at Euromonitor said in a recent report.
They added that with local consumers spending more on fuel, further rationing and the search for substitute foods increased.
The World Bank’s latest Nigeria Development Update report revealed that rising inflation and sluggish growth in Africa’s most populous economy increased the number of poor people to 104 million in 2023 from 89.8 million at the start of the year.
This means that from January to November, an additional 14.2 million people fell into poverty.
“The impact of this inflation is especially hard on the poor and vulnerable. The government has initiated targeted cash transfers to mitigate some of the impact on the most vulnerable households. In addition, a holistic approach to reducing inflation, including through tighter fiscal and monetary policies, is also needed,” the report said.
Last July, President Bola Tinubu declared an immediate state of emergency on food insecurity to tackle the increase in food prices.
Analysts at CSL Stockbrokers, said in a recent report that food insecurity has been a cause of concern as the challenges of insurgency, low investments in agriculture, low mechanised farming, inadequate food storage methods and poor transport infrastructure have suppressed supply while demand for food products in a population-dense country remains high.
“The five-year tax break provided by the Federal Government to stimulate investments in the agricultural sector is yet to improve output in the sector. More so, the price levels of food products have risen significantly over the years as all of the factors mentioned above have either directly affected prices or have indirectly affected food prices through increased transport cost,” they added.
Tinubu’s plan to boost food production and stabilise prices may be threatened as the rising spate of banditry, terrorism, and kidnapping across the country has worsened farmers’ plights.
Since the beginning of this year, several kidnapping cases have been reported in six states and Abuja, the nation’s capital. The deadly operations of terrorists and bandits across five of the six geopolitical zones have left no fewer than six persons dead, 60 kidnapped, and goods worth millions of naira destroyed.
“We cannot stabilise food prices and feed ourselves with the high rate of insecurity across the country,” Jude Obi, president of the Association of Organic Agriculture Practitioners of Nigeria, said.
“The government must address the issue of insecurity if it is serious about food security and diversifying the economy through agriculture,” Obi, who is also the general secretary of the Soil Science Society of Nigeria, said.
