How Naira Redesign Contributed to Current Food Shortages!

 The country's current food shortages are largely due to the naria redesign that occurred in late 2022 and early 2023, according to Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Abubakar Kyari. This redesign significantly impacted the ability of local rural farmers to obtain capital for cultivation.

During a sectoral debate arranged by the House of Representatives to address Nigerians on important national issues of food availability and insecurity, the minister disclosed that farmers' inability to get payment had a significant influence on production.

“In 2022 the policy on the Naria redesign had an impact on local farmers who didn’t have access to cash. In 2023 when they were about to plant, cash was not available which had an impact on the production and that is the effect of what we are currently facing,” the minister stated.

According to Bashir Adeniyi, the Comptroller of the Nigerian Customs Service, many Nigerians lack access to enough food for consumption, but Customs is actively responding to food emergencies, and addressing food insecurity is within the purview of the service.

“Many Nigerians do not have enough to eat. So many of them lack the physical access. A good number of them lack the economic access to food, not to talk of whether they are eating the right kind of food. So this calls for our concerted action. We are currently in the middle of a number of operations, we are carrying out measures in response to this emergency,” he stated.

According to OrderPaper, the naira makeover was advocated by Godwin Emefiele, the previous governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as part of economic measures aimed at fortifying the currency and thwarting vote-buying.