By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun on Thursday revealed that several initiatives put in place by the federal government to make food available to Nigerians have started yielding positive results.
Edun who spoke at a quarterly press briefing in Abuja said government’s strategic input program in the short term involves bringing in agricultural raw materials for food processes.
According to him, “several government initiatives and interventions are being implemented to increase the supply of food in particular, as we know the consumer price index effect was 50% food. So when you achieve a reduction in food prices, you achieve a huge reduction in the overall inflation rate”.
The Minister also noted that in terms of interventions, moving the dial of inflation downwards, that is the intervention in terms of the people to see energy fuel for vehicles, particularly mass transit vehicles, buses, and other forms of mass transit.
He said, “As we know what that does is that CNG fueled vehicles are able to provide pricing that is 1/3. The cost of PMS is a CAG fueled vehicle that provides fuel at 1/3 of the cost of PMS. So there is a critical emphasis on pivoting towards that direction. Not only does it give you cleaner air, not only does it help the government to start to work towards or contribute to achieving his Climate Action goals. It is fundamentally cheaper, as well. Clearly as part of the Reform Program As you’re all aware, on the monetary side monetary policy has been tightened”.
Speaking on the impact of the reforms, the Minister said that Nigeria now stands at a grid position globally to attract massive investments as a result of the efforts of government.
Edun said, “I think we already can see macro economic stability. We have stable exchange rate. The budget deficits as I will show is reducing, the trade balance that measures how we are doing internationally is positive, the investment flows are positive. And there has been a root and branch reconfiguration of the finances of the federal government to achieve increased revenue across the board, as well as to achieve greater expenditure control.”
On government’s efforts to tame high inflation, the minister said the CBN has been proactive in adjusting the monetary policy rate to address inflation head on which is in line with its legal mandate, adding that “we are optimistic that inflation, despite it being sticky at the moment, will moderate soon due to some of the commitments and some of the actions that I earlier described”.
He also disclosed that in terms of what is happening with interest rates, the gap between inflation and interest rates is narrowing, noting that what that does is that it makes the naira more viable as a store of value and reduces the incentive to switch to non Naira investments. READ ALSO:
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Speaking on the impact of the reforms, the Minister said that Nigeria now stands at a grid position globally to attract massive investments as a result of the efforts of government.
Edun said, “I think we already can see macro economic stability. We have stable exchange rate. The budget deficits as I will show is reducing, the trade balance that measures how we are doing internationally is positive, the investment flows are positive. And there has been a root and branch reconfiguration of the finances of the federal government to achieve increased revenue across the board, as well as to achieve greater expenditure control.”
