Business
Agriculture Reforms Will Crash Food Prices, Says Kyari
Mr Kyari said the government was focused on mechanised agriculture and youth empowerment to guarantee long-term food security.
President Bola Tinubu’s government has said its agricultural reforms were designed to ensure food availability, affordability, and accessibility for all Nigerians.
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, disclosed this in Maiduguri.
Mr Kyari highlighted the government’s ongoing interventions in the agricultural sector to tackle food insecurity and revive the national economy.
He said the ministry had adopted a multi-pronged strategy to address challenges such as insecurity, flooding, and import dependency, particularly in critical areas like wheat and rice production.
“As part of efforts to reduce the over six million tonnes of wheat currently imported annually, we have launched a national wheat farming programme,” Mr Kyari said.
He noted that Cross River has become the first southern state to join the wheat production drive, marking a significant milestone in diversifying the crop’s geographic spread.
Mr Kyari also said fertiliser distribution under the programme had boosted rice production by 58,000 tonnes, enabling the federal government to subsidise rice supply to states affected by flooding.
“In addition to wheat, the ministry has championed a successful rice programme, leading to positive harvests nationwide,” he said.
The minister stressed the need to protect both consumers and producers, noting that “80 per cent of our food is produced by local farmers.”
“Our immediate priority is to address affordability and ensure every Nigerian has access to safe and nutritious food,” Mr Kyari said.
With Nigeria’s population projected to reach 400 million by 2050, Mr Kyari said the government was focused on mechanised agriculture and youth empowerment to guarantee long-term food security.
He said the government was also working to restore national assets, including tractors and essential equipment, to boost productivity.
To reduce post-harvest losses, Mr Kyari announced a bilateral agreement with Brazil focused on the preservation, processing, and storage of perishable food items.
He also said Nigeria had partnered with Belarus to provide aggregation services aimed at significantly increasing output.
The minister warned against misuse of government-supplied agricultural machinery, urging farmers to make judicious use of such equipment.
He further revealed that only three of Nigeria’s silo sites were currently functional, but plans were underway to reactivate the remaining facilities.
“The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security will collaborate with stakeholders to ensure these critical storage facilities are fully utilised,” Mr Kyari said.
Gazettengr.com
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) marketers have slashed depot prices, offering distributors lower wholesale rates and raising expectations that cooking gas refill costs could ease for Nigerian consumers in the weeks ahead.
Fresh market data showed that PPMC recorded the sharpest reduction, cutting its depot price to N1,010/kg, a 0.69%.
Rainoil Lagos followed with reduction, bringing its depot price down to N1,030/kg. NIPCO Lagos held its rate steady at N1,025/kg, data from petroluemprice.ng show.
The only marketer to move in the opposite direction was Matrix Warri, which is N1,100/kg.
The new cooking gas depot prices are:
PPMC: N1,010/kg
NIPCO Lagos: N1,025/kg
Rainoil Lagos: N1,030/kg
Matrix Warri: N1,100/k
Industry sources attributed the downward movement to greater competition among suppliers and improved product availability at the wholesale level.
Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress ADC, Atiku Abubakar, has demanded that the National Assembly (NASS) immediately conduct a comprehensive forensic review of the 2026 Appropriation Act, following revelations of over ₦210 billion in overlapping and duplicated allocations in the budget.
In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the revelation, coming alongside Nigeria’s poor showing on nearly 90 percent of globally recognised prosperity indicators, exposes the Tinubu administration as one of the most fiscally reckless governments in Nigeria’s democratic history.
“For more than three years, Nigerians have been subjected to relentless hardship. They were told that fuel subsidy removal, exchange rate unification, higher taxes and rising tariffs were bitter pills that would eventually restore economic stability. Yet today, the same government cannot explain how more than ₦210 billion found its way into duplicated and overlapping budget provisions,” he said.
He linked the finding to what he called a growing pattern of questionable budget practices, citing allocations for projects outside agencies’ statutory mandates and insertions running into billions of naira.
The former vice president also cited the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC Limited’s audited 2024 financial statements, which he said showed ₦7.13 trillion spent on “Energy Security Expenses” — what NNPC itself identifies as petrol subsidy — despite claims that subsidy had been removed in 2023.
Atiku argued that this fiscal indiscipline is reflected in declining living standards, noting that families are skipping meals, small businesses are shutting down, and graduates cannot find jobs, even as government celebrates selective economic indicators.
He also urged the Auditor-General of the Federation, anti-corruption agencies and civil society organisations to independently scrutinise the budget, identify officials responsible for the duplicated allocations, and ensure all improperly appropriated funds are recovered.
Atiku pledged that an ADC administration would restore credibility to public finance through transparent budgeting, zero-based expenditure planning, digital public expenditure tracking and strict personal accountability for public officers.
“When the owner of the barn invites goats to keep watch over his harvest, he should not be surprised when hunger follows abundance. Nigeria deserves custodians of her commonwealth, not Bourdillon caretakers of waste,” he added.
The Director-General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Omolola Oloworaran, has explained how a retired factory worker’s monthly pension increased from N18,000 to N206,000 after the Federal Government carried out pension reforms under President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
The PenCom boss shared the story while speaking on the impact of the reforms, saying the increase reflects the government’s commitment to improving the welfare of retirees.
She said the retiree received a pension alert earlier in the day showing the increased payment.
“Early this morning, somewhere in Nigeria, a retired factory worker checked the alert on his phone. For 21 years, that alert read ₦18,000. This month, as in every single month now, it reads N206,000,” she said.
Oloworaran said the increase was not a gift but the result of the government’s decision to meet its obligations to retired workers.
“He did not win a lottery. He was not given anything he had not already earned. What changed was simple. His country decided to keep its promise,” she added.
According to Oloworaran, the improvement is not limited to one person, as hundreds of thousands of pensioners across the country are benefiting from the reforms.
She credited the progress to President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to workers and vulnerable Nigerians, saying the administration has focused on policies that improve the welfare of retirees.
“Work has been made easy because we have a president that is passionate about the Nigerian people, passionate about vulnerable Nigerians, and doing everything in its power to make sure that it puts more money in the hands of the average Nigerian,” she said.
The PenCom Director-General added that the administration’s record on pension welfare over the past two years reflects the impact of the reforms.
She said, “Today, standing before you with 24 months of evidence, I can say that that case is no longer emerging. It is on the record. Because history is rarely defined by one decision. It is defined by a pattern of decisions.”
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