The World Bank urges Nigeria to tackle food inflation

World Bank Director in Nigeria, Dr. Matthew Verghis, on Wednesday urged the Federal Government to tackle inflation, particularly food inflation, to bridge the gap between policy and society.

Verghis made the call in the World Bank’s latest report on the Nigeria Development Update (NDU), entitled: “From Policy to People: Bringing the Reforms Gains Home,” released on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said the NDU report showed that Nigeria had made significant progress in stabilizing its economy.

Verghis stressed that growth has accelerated, incomes have increased, debt indicators have improved, the foreign exchange market has stabilized, foreign exchange reserves have increased and inflation has finally started to trend downwards.

However, he said although stabilization had been achieved, many Nigerians were still struggling with eroding purchasing power while poverty remained a pressing problem.

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The World Bank Director stated that the report estimates that 139 million Nigerians currently live in poverty.

He said that although tight, data-based monetary policy and non-expansionary fiscal policy were appropriate to control inflation, this was clearly not enough.
“Inflation is falling, but not fast enough.
“This monetary and fiscal policy must be complemented by structural reforms aimed in particular at reducing food inflation, which is driven by high supply and market inefficiencies.

“So NDU is built on the growth agenda led by the public sector and supported by the private sector outlined in the previous edition,” said Verghis.