Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to desist from providing foreign exchange for the importation of food items.
President Buhari gave the order on Tuesday December 29, at the fifth regular meeting with the presidential economic advisory council held at the statehouse, in Abuja.
In a statement issued by the President’s senior special assistant on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, Buhari was reported to have insisted on Nigerians consuming only locally produced food items.
“The CBN must not give money to import food. Already, about seven states are producing all the rice we need. We must eat what we produce,” the statement partly read.
“Going back to the land is the way out. We depend on petrol at the expense of agriculture. Now the oil industry is in turmoil. We are being squeezed to produce at 1.5 million barrels a day as against a capacity to produce 2.3 million. At the same time, the technical cost of our production per barrel is high, compared to the Middle East production.
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“We will continue to encourage our people to go back to the land. Our elite is indoctrinated in the idea that we are rich in oil, leaving the land for the city for oil riches.
“We are back to the land now. We must not lose the opportunity to make life easier for our people. Imagine what would have happened if we didn’t encourage agriculture and closed the borders. We would have been in trouble.” the statement concluded.
The President’s latest directive makes it the third time the country’s number one citizen would issue the Central Bank of Nigeria a directive not to give food importers foreign exchange.
The first time President Buhari issued this sort of directive was last year, August 2019.
He then issued a second directive in September 2020.