NewStats: 3,261,585 , 8,174,431 topics. Date: Thursday, 29 May 2025 at 05:33 PM 3k6g13

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says addressing food insecurity should be an immediate priority for the Nigerian government.

The IMF said this in its End-of-Mission statement issued after the completion of the IMF Staff 2024 Article IV Mission to Nigeria, a copy of which was obtained by the New Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday.

NAN reports that the end-of-mission statement includes statements of IMF staff teams that convey preliminary findings after a visit to a country.

The statement said the new government inherited a difficult economic situation marked by low growth, low revenue collection, accelerating inflation, and external imbalances built up over the years.

“Addressing food insecurity is the immediate priority.
”The recent approval of a well-targeted and effective social protection system is an important step towards addressing food insecurity in Nigeria, and its implementation will be crucial.”

It said the decision by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to further tighten monetary policy would help contain inflation and pressures on the naira.

The statement said an IMF team, led by Axel Schimmelpfennig, IMF mission chief for Nigeria, visited Lagos and Abuja from Feb. 12 to Feb. 23, 2024, to hold discussions for the 2024 Article IV Consultations with Nigeria.

It said the team met with the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy of Nigeria, Wale Edun, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso.

Others were senior government and CBN officials, the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment, as well as representatives from sub-nationals, the private sector, and civil society organisations (CSOs).

The statement said that at the end of the visit, Schimmelpfennig issued the following statement:

“Nigeria’s economic outlook is challenging. Economic growth strengthened in the fourth quarter, with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth reaching 2.8 per cent in 2023. This falls slightly short of population growth dynamics.

”Improved oil production and an expected better harvest in the second half of the year are positive for 2024 GDP growth, which is projected to reach 3.2 per cent, although high inflation, naira weakness, and policy tightening will provide headwinds.

“With about eight per cent of Nigerians deemed food insecure, addressing rising food insecurity is the immediate policy priority. In this regard, staff welcomed the authorities’ approval of an effective and well-targeted social protection system.

“The team also welcomed the government’s release of grains, seeds, and fertiliser, as well as Nigeria’s introduction of dry-season farming.”

Schimmelpfennig said recent improvements in revenue collection and oil production were encouraging.

He said Nigeria’s low revenue mobilisation constrains the government’s ability to respond to shocks and to promote long-term development.

“Non-oil revenue collection improved by 0.8 per cent of GDP in 2023, helped by naira depreciation. Oil production reached 1.65 million barrels per day in January as a result of enhanced security.

Schimmelpfennig said the capping of fuel pump prices and electricity tariffs below cost recovery could have a fiscal cost of up to three per cent of GDP in 2024.

He said the recently approved targeted social safety net programme that will provide cash transfers to vulnerable households needed to be fully implemented.

”This is before the government can address costly implicit fuel and electricity subsidies in a manner that will ensure low-income households are protected.

“The team welcomed the MPC’s decision to further tighten monetary policy. The MPC increased the policy rate by 400 basis points to 22.75 per cent for a total tightening of 1,025 basis points since May 2022.

“This decision should help contain inflation, which reached 29.9 per cent year-on-year in January 2024, and pressures on the naira.” (NAN)

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/03/address-food-insecurity-with-immediate-priority-imf-urges-fg/

Ebola Tinubu is only interested in answering Mr president. Nothing else matters to him.

I wander why the government has refuse to import wheat and rice on the short run just to oversupply the market. If the market is flooded it will lead to reduction in price.

Paraman:
I wander why the government has refuse to import wheat and rice on the short run just to oversupply the market. If the market is flooded it will lead to reduction in price.

Well, if they allow food to be imported even as a short-term measure or secure farms in the middle belt for the farmers to cultivate their lands and produce food, there would be no hunger again. This spells doom for the politicians who need Nigerian youths to remain poor and hungry to be willing tools for thuggery and snatching of ballot boxes.

So you can be assured that the FG will not do anything fundamental to alleviate food insecurity and hunger in Nigeria as it serves the purpose of the elite politicians to remain in power. They will merely do palliatives and give them rice or garri to feed them for a while before the hunger returns to keep them hooked on the whims of the elites in government.

Sometimes I am inclined to believe that Tinubu is out to destroy this country. Why else will a President be so insensitive to the acute hunger and poverty in the land.

And he once declared that he never believed in One Nigeria.

Quest7777:
Sometimes I am inclined to believe that Tinubu is out to destroy this country. Why else will a President be so insensitive to the acute hunger poverty in the land.

And he once declared that he never believed in One Nigeria.

You may be right. Ebi npa awon enyan.

The IMF hasn't realised that Tinubu is a clueless daft buffoon that has no real solution to the myriad of problems besieging Nigerians. It's in his nature to share rice and beans to the people in a bid to mitigate hunger. He did it in the past. He is looking @ same direction again.

Multi-dimensional poverty can't be eliminated by distributing trailer load of beans and rice that is barely enough to sustain any locality let alone one State in Nigeria. This had proven to not be the solution overtime.

I implore the IMF to take a cue from the Turkish proverb that says; When clown moves into the palace he doesn't become a king instead the palace becomes a circus.

This satanic organization run by of the synagogue of Satan will now suggest selling vast land to BlackRock to plant GMO crops.

The bandits terrorising the north are being sponsored by this same den of vipers so as to displace rural farmers and bring about famine in the land.

Hold BlackRock and Bill Gates for all the madness we are witnessing cornering terrorism and food insecurity.

Paraman:
I wander why the government has refuse to import wheat and rice on the short run just to oversupply the market. If the market is flooded it will lead to reduction in price.

With 1 dollar to 1,500 naira? Dey play.

Garri don add price, make government import garri too. Na only wheat and rice waka come?

P in APC stands for Poverty

Stop listening to IMF, IMF is among the reasons our economy is down, IMF is one of the reasons we become an importing nation, a dumping ground for foreign countries.

Johnjustice:
Stop listening to IMF, IMF is among the reasons our economy is down, IMF is one of the reasons we become an importing nation, a dumping ground for foreign countries.

IMF and the World Bank are a criminal organisation.

Even if IMF doesn't say it, does the government need anyone to remind them to find a way to curb insecurity??

Nlfpmod, hungerbad.

Hehehe.

These ones are just acting like the good guys now. They are part of the problem we are facing today.

They will come as angels, singing a lot of financial advice to the ears of governments across the world. They think text book economics work in every situation and country.

They don't look at the complexity of each country before dishing out their financial advice.

I no blame them,na the people wa da take their advice wholeheartedly.

Lol. Tinubu prefers to appear in charge than being in charge. He doesn't know what he is sitting on.
Ramadan can be used to incite an hungry and brainwashed crowd easily.

How many orders per year do these Neo-Colonialists dish out to the U.S. and other European countries in a year?

The game is real.

Stupid set of monkeys

The fake ant who hates statistics doesn't know what to do,so make una no bother am

Make Tinubu dey pursue fowl.

Tell IMF to keep mute!

Nigeria is a sovereign state even if we dey owe them or borrow from them!

They too dey chook mouth here and there!

It's beginning to look like another set of cabals are set to attack the strength of the people. Hungry people don't fight against the government. The only thing that will be on their mind is FOOD.

Iies

Baba has turned Naija to a country of milk and honey.

Food everywhere nyafu nyafu

Utanisco:
Stupid set of monkeys

Okay o

IMF will say remove subsidy and float the naira which has a consequence of causing food insecurity but then comes back to say "“Addressing food insecurity is the immediate priority."

Foolish IMF

International bodies are following too. Tinubu became the president at all cost ad ended up being the worse. History will not forget this.

Clowns. These stark clowns where the ones that advised the FG to devalue the Naira. . but practically, they dont have any idea of what an average Nigerian feels on the streets.

Now that their companies are gradually packing out of Nigeria, due to huge losses and some of their industries are under threats of potential mass lootings, their senses are gradually coming on.

They keep looking at GDP and other fake paper statistics to determine their ideas.

If Tinubu want to survive his tenure, he must ignore these huge clowns.

slivertongue:
P in APC stands for Poverty

Association of political clowns

d presidency is'nt aware

Of any food insecurity

d audio grains is everywhere

The next statement from the idiots would be that some grains have been released by the federal government.

I think they thought us all beggars like their ers. It shall never be well with the generations of our politicians. I pity their children