Some experts have urged the federal government to support the establishment of more refined petroleum plants and agricultural intervention schemes in the country.
According to them, this will help check the rising inflation rate and ameliorate the current economic hardship.
They expressed their views in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Monday.
President of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), Samuel Agbelaye, emphasised the importance of having more refined petroleum plants locally to control inflation.
“The establishment of the Dangote refinery and other privately-owned petroleum plants will enable the country to achieve self-sufficiency and reduce the volume of foreign exchange expended on imports.
“Consequently, Nigeria could become a net exporter of refined petroleum products, earning more foreign exchange in the process,” Agbelaye said.
He noted that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) cannot continue to raise interest rates in an attempt to curb inflation due to the country’s unique economic circumstances.
He added that the federal government should prioritise budget allocations to avoid excessive spending on recurrent expenditures while neglecting capital investments.
“This often exacerbates the current inflation rate because the bulk of disbursements usually do not reach the productive sectors,” Agbelaye explained.
Project coordinator, NISI Agro Allied Services, Nnamdi Ifenkwe, called for more intervention schemes for farmers.
This is where farmers will be issued soft loans to purchase improved seedlings and receive technical support from agricultural non-governmental organisations.
“This will ensure that the country achieves self-sufficiency in food production and addresses the exorbitant costs,” Ifenkwe said.
He noted that all levels of government should invest more in modern storage facilities to curb post-harvest losses in rural areas.
He added that the federal government should continue to address the insecurity hindering farming in many agrarian states.
“This will enable more youths to engage in mechanised agriculture to earn a living, especially now that there are more innovative ways to enhance agriculture and its entire value chain,” Ifenkwe said.
Chief executive officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr Muda Yusuf, said that the government should entrench fiscal discipline to curb the nation’s rising inflation rate.
“This, particularly, at the sub-national levels of government, where public funds are often not judiciously used, exacerbates the rising inflation rate because funds are not injected into key sectors of the general economy,” Yusuf said.
Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose by 0.26 percentage points to 33.95 per cent in May from 33.69 per cent in April.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed this in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for May 2024.
NBS also reported that food inflation increased to 40.66 per cent in May from 40.53 per cent in April.
On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 11.54 percentage points higher compared to the rate recorded in May 2023, which was 22.41 per cent.