Nigeria spends N1.85trn on food importation in 2020

The Federal Government spent about N1.85 trillion on food importation in 2020 despite the closure of the land borders.

This was disclosed by the chairman of Economic Advisory Council (ECA), Doyin Salami during the 2021 National Economic Outlook event organised by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), held virtually on Tuesday.

According to Salami, “Despite border closure, our national import of food amounted to N1.85 trillion between January and September 2020, a 62 percent increase when compared to the same period in 2019.

“This suggests a weakness in our ability to feed ourselves and raises the need to consider a review of intervention policies in agriculture.

“Agriculture continues to decelerate growing at 1.7 percent year-to-date while consumer sensitive sectors like manufacturing and distribution continue to contract in double digits,” he said.

He also noted that about 2.5 million farmers were impacted by floods in 2019.