Economic Hardship: We Plan To Establish A National Commodity Board To Crash Food Prices — VP Shettima

Vice President Kashim Shettima 

The federal government says it plans to set up a commodity board to regulate the soaring prices of food in the country.

A proposal to establish a Commodity Board to control the nation's skyrocketing food prices has been made public by the federal government.

This was revealed by Vice President Kashim Shettima on Tuesday during a high-level strategic meeting on resource mobilization, food systems, and climate change that was held over two days in the Presidential Villa's Banquet Hall in Abuja.

Shettima states that the board's duties encompass evaluating and controlling food costs in addition to managing a strategic food reserve intended to maintain the prices of vital grains and other dietary staples.

“Our solution to the potential food crisis has become immediate, medium, and long-term strategies. The short-term strategy entails revitalizing the food supply through specific interventions like the distribution of fertilizers and grains to farmers and households to counteract the effects of subsidy removal; fostering collaboration between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources for efficient farmland irrigation, ensuring year-round food production, and addressing price volatility by establishing a National Commodity Board.

“This board will continually assess and regulate food prices, maintaining a strategic food reserve for stabilizing prices of crucial grains and other food items,” Shettima said.

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He discussed how the government is addressing the security issues that have kept farmers from working their fields, “I wish to assure you that we will engage our security architecture to protect the farms and the farmers so that farmers can return to the farmlands without fear of attacks.

“We won't only make it safe for farmers to return to their farms, but we will also ensure the activation of land banks. There are currently 500,000 hectares of already mapped land that will be used to increase the availability of arable land for farming, which will immediately impact food output.”