Nigeria Imported $1 Billion Worth of Food in 5months
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said Nigeria spent a staggering a $949 million on food imports over the past five months, according to thisday.
The Director of Monetary Policy, CBN, Mr. Moses Tule during a private sector dialogue on foreign exchange policy organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), explained that between January and May this year, CBN spent $575 million on importation of wheat, $374 million on fish importation and $349 billion on electrical and electronics.
According to him, some of the items on the list are what we can produce in Nigeria, “with the level of unemployment we have in the country, CBN must ensure that the economy survived and private sectors create jobs.”
He said inclusion of some imported goods and services on the list of items not valid for foreign exchange in the Nigerian foreign exchange markets is aimed to boost local production in the nation.
In his words, “At the point where we are, if we are producing some of these imported items into the country, there is no reason whatsoever to import them. Nigeria does not have the capacity to keep importing. Nigeria iss Africa’s number one economy, so we should be able to produce and most of the things that were banned are items we can produce locally.”
He noted that the move to ban some of those items would create jobs opportunities for the nation’s teeming youths, stating that Nigeria must stop creating jobs for its counterparts when issues of unemployment in the country is yet to be addressed.
“Our manufacturing sector should rise to the occasion knowing that there is an existing market for their products,” he said
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