Nigerians have continued to react to last Tuesday’s directive by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Central Bank of Nigeria to halt further provision of foreign exchange for the importation of food items into the country.
The presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party in the 2019 presidential elections said the government should rather make the country’s agriculture competitive and import will fizzle out. “Our economy will not be saved by ad hoc political decisions like this handed down by the very institutions that should be shielded from the whim and caprices of politicians.“The issue here isn’t whether or not CBN should allow access to FOREX for food imports. It is about whether such an economic policy of a Central Bank should be imposed by a political authority. A major reason for our poverty, instability and weak economy is weak institutions,” he said.
“Each value chain has to be involved in the process towards backward integration. Each value chain should sit down with government to articulate and agree on how this will be realised.