An economist, Prof. Evans Osabuohien, has said that the nation’s rising inflation can be easily controlled only if the Federal Government urgently provides adequate infrastructure to the productive sector of the economy.
Osabuohien, also the Head of Economics Department, Covenant University, Ota, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Ota, Ogun.
The don was speaking against the backdrop of the National Bureau of Statistics’ (NBS) recent statement that the country’s inflation rate increased from 15.75 per cent in December 2020 to 16.47 per cent in January.
Osabuohien appealed to the Federal Government to redouble its efforts at providing adequate infrastructure such as stable power supply, good road networks and security to the productive sector of the economy to mitigate frequent rise in inflation.
He noted that the country was not producing enough goods due to poor infrastructure, which he said was contributing to the persistent rise in inflation rate.
“The country is experiencing a situation where too much money is used in purchasing fewer goods as a result of the inability of the manufacturing sector to produce sufficient goods for consumption.
“Most of the goods consumed by Nigerians are imported and once the price of dollar goes up, it affects the cost of purchase of these goods. This, invariably, brings about rise in inflation rate,” he said.
The don explained that there was the urgent need for government to improve road networks for speedy transportation of most of the perishable goods such as tomatoes, oranges from the hinterland to city centre for value addition to the economy.
According to him, if government can help to galvanise and improve the packaging process of goods and services of the productive sector, “it will obviously reduce the cost of production and ultimately stem the rising inflation rate in the country’’. (NAN)
