Inflation: Experts Suggest Strategies to Tackle Rising Prices

Some experts have advocated increased investment in agriculture intervention programmes and support for local industries as key measures to combat rising inflation. The experts advised in separate interviews in Lagos on Wednesday.

They emphasised the need for the Federal Government to further improve its efforts in agriculture to address food-induced inflation.

Prof. Sherifdeen Tella, Head of the Department of Economics at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State, said that the government needed to inject more funds into mechanised agriculture.

Tella said, “The government should inject more funds into mechanised agriculture, particularly in various food belt states of the country.  “This may lead to the country achieving food security and reducing the importation of food produce.”

He highlighted the importance of supporting the establishment of local petrochemical plants to improve self-sufficiency.

This, he noted, would reduce the need for refined petrol imports, therefore lowering logistics costs contributing to inflation.

“This will accelerate our self-sufficiency and stop the volume of foreign exchange, which ought to be earmarked for refined petrol imports.

“Then the cost of logistics may gradually begin to decline, which is one of the factors responsible for the rising inflation rate,” Tella said.

On fiscal discipline, Mr Adebayo Adesina, former President, the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITAN), recommended macroeconomic policies that would boost local industries and encourage domestic production.

According to him, this will lead to price competition and reduce reliance on imports, consequently easing inflationary pressures. “This will expedite the growth of domestic companies and enable them to produce locally.

“This will lead to stiff competition of the prices of commodities and automatically reduce the volume of imported ones,” Adesina said.

Also, Mr Moses Igbrude, National Coordinator, Independence Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), suggested that monetary authorities maintain liquidity in the foreign exchange market.

According to him, this will help to control inflation while advocating for increased exports of oil and non-oil products to boost the country’s economy.

Igbrude said that by addressing these key issues through coordinated efforts across multiple sectors, the government could effectively combat rising inflation and promote economic stability.

“The regulators must increase the country’s oil quota and address oil theft to earn more foreign exchange into government coffers.

“While issues relating to agric export may include value addition before export, to earn a premium,” Igbrude said.

He noted that the tiers of governments could collaborate more in tackling insecurity challenges for farmers not to be discouraged in agro-business. Nigeria’s headline inflation rate reached 33.2 per cent in March.

This represents a 1.5 percentage point year-on-year (YoY) increase from 31.7 per cent recorded in February.

The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, disclosed this in its Consumer Price Indices report for March.

The bureau also said that food inflation increased YoY by 2.09 percentage points to 40.01 per cent in March from 37.92 per cent in February.

On a YoY basis, the headline inflation rate was 11.16 percentage points higher compared to the rate recorded in March 2023, which was 22.04 per cent.