The rise in food prices in sub-Saharan Africa, is partly due to global factors, as the region imports most of its top staple foods. The country has a large agricultural sector, and there have been efforts to boost local production to reduce the dependence on food imports. Comparatively, the figure was $644,000 or 23 per cent less than a $2.7bn disbursed by the apex bank for food importation. Kabir said, “If you look at the regime we came out of on the dependence of importation and the numbers before that 2023 figure. We spent more on food importation before 2015 but between 2016 and 2021, the figure dropped from our observations.

Source: Punch May 21, 2024 14:27 UTC