“Border closure cause of rising inflation” – Nigerian Gov’t admits

The Federal Government has admitted that the closure of the country’s land borders is contributing to rising inflation.

According to recent figures from the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, the headline inflation stood at 11.61 per cent as of October.

Punch Newspaper reports that, the Minister of Finance/Budget /National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, told State House Correspondents that inflation rose due to hikes in food prices arising from border closure.

She was responding to questions after the Federal Executive Council in Abuja.

Ahmed said, “Now headline inflation is at about 11:61 per cent as of the end of October. The slight increase in inflation between September and October is due to food inflation.

“And part of the reason is the border closure, but the border closure is very short and temporary and the increase is just about two basis point.”
The FEC meeting was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

However, she stated that the closure of the borders was a temporary measure adopted by the government to protect the economy against trade malpractices by neighbouring countries.

“We are still discussing with our neighbours to ensure that we all respect our trade protocols, especially now that the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement is coming into effect.”