Presidential spokesman, Daniel Bwala attributes food price reduction to crackdown on insecurity in Nigeria
The Special Adviser to the President on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala has credited the recent decline in food prices to the Bola Tinubu administration’s aggressive efforts in tackling insecurity.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, Daniel Bwala dismissed claims that the price reduction was driven by increased importation.
Instead, he asserted that improved security conditions have restored confidence in the agricultural sector, leading to increased local production.
Bwala emphasized that the government’s decisive actions against banditry, terrorism, and farmer-herder conflicts have encouraged farmers to return to their farmlands, boosting food supply and stabilizing prices.
“The reason the food prices are crashing is because we have dealt a heavy blow to insecurity, hence farmers enthusiastically go to farm and do what they do best. President Tinubu @officialABAT means business,” he wrote.
Presidency Dismisses Claims Linking Price Drop to Imports
Addressing reports suggesting that food importation was responsible for the price decrease, Bwala described such claims as fake news, allegedly being spread by individuals unhappy with the government’s security gains.
“Ignore the sore losers who are peddling fake news that importation is the reason for crashing of the prices and that President Tinubu is destroying the economy of the North. Such individuals are probably not happy that we are dealing with insecurity,” he added.
Food Prices Show Signs of Decline
Over the past few weeks, reports indicate that staple food prices have started to moderate after months of relentless inflation. Analysts attribute this to increased supply, seasonal harvests, and improved security conditions in key agricultural regions.
- However, experts caution that while insecurity has been a major challenge for agriculture, structural issues such as logistics, market speculation, and input costs also play a role in food inflation. The government is expected to continue working on broader economic reforms to sustain price stability.
- Nairametrics data shows that the prices of major staple food items in Lagos and other parts of the country experienced a significant decline in February 2025, following months of continuous price surges.
- The prices of several staple food items dropped significantly due to increased supply from local farmers who have commenced harvesting.
- Notably, the highest decline is the price of a big bag of onions which fell sharply by 43.2%, driven by an influx of fresh supplies from major producing states.
In addition, price reductions were recorded for egusi (melon), white garri, beans, frozen fish varieties (kote and Titus), a 25-litre gallon of vegetable oil, and yams.
Also, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released its rebased Consumer Price Index (CPI) on February 18, 2025, which showed that Nigeria’s headline inflation rate dropped to 24.48% in January 2025.
