Buhari approved the release of food items from the nation’s strategic reserves

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday approved the release of food items from the nation’s strategic reserves in a bid to tackle the high cost of food in the country.

The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, disclosed this in a statement in Abuja.

He said President Buhari had expressed concern about the hike in food prices at a time the economy was seriously hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said: “The president has just approved the release of food items from the strategic reserves, including 30,000 tons of maize to animal feeds producers to ease the high cost of poultry production.

“President Buhari’s administration has raised some of these issues with the various food producer associations involved, particularly those of rice and other grains.

“With their cooperation, the high food prices should soon be a thing of the past.

“The president assures Nigerians that the situation is transient. His administration has already begun looking and putting in place measures to ameliorate the situation.

“While providence has been kind to us with the rains and as such an expectation that a bumper harvest would lead to crashing of food prices and ease the burdens on the population, government’s concern is that the exploitative market behaviour by actors has significantly increased among traders in the past few years and may make any such relief a short-lived one.

“This year has, indeed, tested us in ways that globalisation has never been tested since the turn of the century. These challenges have disrupted lives and supply chains all over the world, and Nigeria has not been spared.”