The Edo State governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, has linked Nigeria’s persistent rising inflation to the country’s inability to consistently produce and export goods and services, noting that the trend continues to affect the nation’s economy negatively.
Obaseki said this while receiving representatives from the World Bank, led by the organisation’s Task Team Leader (TTL) for the Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement, and Livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS) project in Nigeria, Manievel Emmanuel Sene, who were on a courtesy visit at the Government House, Benin City, Edo State.
Other members of the group at the entourage of the World Bank delegation include the Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Honourable Stephen Idehenre; Permanent Secretary and staff from his ministry and the National Project Coordinator, Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (L-PRES), Sanusi Abubakar, among others.
The team is in Benin City for the third World Bank implementation mission.
The governor noted that the greatest problem of Nigeria is that the country is not producing enough for importation with no import buffers.
He said: “Nigerians are in a dire situation and one reason why we are having high food inflation is because of low production as we don’t have any foreign exchange anywhere to substitute with imports. We are not producing enough; that is the greatest problem facing Nigeria.
“Whatever we are producing is very low as a country and people now don’t have import buffers anymore. When you fly into countries around the world, from their airspace you will see farm demarcation but the same can’t be said of Nigeria.”
While noting that Edo state is a hub in the country, Obaseki said the reforms in the last seven and a half years are geared towards repositioning the state for economic growth and development, ensuring the influx of investors to boost the internally generated revenue.
Obaseki added: “Commercialisation is important to us so that when we produce, there is a ready market and linkage of the product to those that need it. I want to know and see those real farmers producing in the state, what they are producing and the size of the market.
“We have people who have invested, but they are not making money not because there is no demand but the capacity and sincerity to go ahead. We have given people money for livestock farming but it failed. It is not about money again but capacity and sincerity.”
The World Bank Task Team Leader (TTL) for the APPEALS project in Nigeria, Manievel Emmanuel Sene, said the bank focused on three outcomes, which include productivity, commercialisation and resilience.
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