High cost of food items driving Nigeria’s inflation rate, says expert

Prof Uche Uwaleke of Nasarawa State University, says the rising cost of food items is the major driver of inflation in Nigeria, noting that even during this harvest season when expectations ordinarily should point to a downward trend.

He disclosed this earlier on Monday while reacting to on the new inflation figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics which now stand at 14.23 percent.

He noted that “food inflation in October was highest in Edo, Kogi, and Zamfara and may not be unconnected with insecurity in these parts of the country”.

Prof. Uwaleke, who is also the President of Association of Capital Market Academics of Nigeria, said since food inflation is the major challenge, it is obviously a supply issue and has gone beyond what the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, monetary policy can control.

Consequently, he advised the government to “focus on increasing food production by aggressively implementing the massive agricultural programme contained in the Economic Sustainability Plan”.

Commenting on the new inflation figures which now stand at 14.23 percent, Prof. Uwaleke noted that “contributory factors include the continuous border closure, the increase in VAT and implementation of stamp duty as well as the high exchange rate especially in the parallel market”.

The increase in the pump price of fuel he said also contributed “because according to the NBS, a major cause of core inflation came from an increase in transport cost”.

According to Uwaleke, “with the effect of COVID’19 on the economy still lingering especially from supply chain disruptions, it is no surprise that headline inflation has continued to rise with the NBS October number coming in at 14.23% up from 13.71% the previous month.”