By Ige Adekunle
An economist, Dr Tunde Adeoye, has urged the Federal Government to tackle insecurity challenges to stem the continuous increase in the nation’s inflation rate.
Adeoye, an associate Professor, Department of Economics, University of Lagos, gave the advice while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Ota, Ogun.
NAN reports that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had on Friday said that the nation’s inflation rate increased from 19.6 per cent in July to 20.5 per cent in August, the highest since 2005.
He noted that insecurity challenges were contributing immensely to the continuous increase in the nation’s inflation rate.
Adeoye said that food inflation was about 23 per cent in the inflation component released by NBS.
“The continuous increase in inflation rate is the aftermath effect of the activities of Boko Haram, Herder men, kidnapping among others in the country.
“People are not secured due to security problems, as farmers can no longer go to their farms to produce.
“In addition, the country is not producing anything, which has made it to import most of its foods from abroad,” he said.
The economist appealed to the Federal Government to redouble its efforts toward tackling insecurity challenges so that the farmers could go back to the farm.
He said this would help to bring down inflation rate drastically in the country.
Adeoye also called on the Federal Government to further curtail oil theft in order to boost the nation’s revenue base.
The don emphasised the need for the Federal Government to create enabling environment such as stable electricity, good road network and adequate security for the productive sector to thrive.
He said that this would also enable the country to produce goods and services, and reduce the heavy dependence on imported goods. (NAN)
