President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria not to provide forex for importers of food items and fertilizer.
This was made known via a statement by Mallam Garba shehu, Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity. The statement reads:
“We have a lot of able-bodied young people willing to work and agriculture is the answer. We have a lot to do to support our farmers”
“From only three operating in the country, we have 33 fertilizer blending plants now working. We will not pay a kobo of our foreign reserves to import fertilizer. We will empower local producers.”
The President also directed that blenders of fertiliser should convey products directly to state governments so as to skip the cartel of transporters undermining the efforts to successfully deliver the products to users at reasonable costs.
He also advised private businesses bent on food importation to source their foreign exchange independently, saying “use your money to compete with our farmers instead of using foreign reserves to bring in compromised food items to divest the efforts of our farmers.
CBN Governor Godwin Emiefile, speaking at National Food Security Council (NFSC) meeting held in the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, confirmed the Presidential order to withhold funding from for food and fertiliser importation.
