Gilbert Ekugbe
The AFEX 2024 commodities outlook has predicted a consistent rise in the prices of domestic commodity prices in 2024.
It also projected that key export commodities like cocoa and sorghum would rise by 50 per cent and 20 per cent respectively due to declining production while key consumers’ commodities like maize and paddy rice were projected to rise by 25 per cent and 40 per cent respectively, despite a 4.0 per cent increase projection on production of paddy rice.
The Vice President of AFEX for Financial Markets, Ms. Oluwafunto Olasemo, identified food inflation as one of the major drivers of inflation in Nigeria and advised the present administration to intensify efforts at combating post-harvest losses, which is responsible for over 50 per cent food losses in the country.
Olasemo said: “The purpose of the outlook is to provide information to the market as to the direction that these prices would go both from a global and local perspective while also putting in context the events around the world that could have an impact on the prices of these commodities.
“Food inflation will continue to be high which invariably impact headline inflation, but looking at the position of the present administration in terms of placing high priority on agriculture and how to drive value in that space, I believe that the government is going to put a lot of resources to manage and bring food inflation on a downward trend.”
According to her, to curb food inflation, Nigeria has to increase its level of productivity to meet the ever increasing net demand for staple commodities in order to curb food inflation.
“We are at a supply deficit meaning that if nothing is done to close that gap of supply deficit, food prices will continue to skyrocket. There will always be pressure on food prices, so to address food inflation, there has to be a deliberate effort to addressing the key issues affecting productivity such as post-harvest losses where 40 to 50 per cent of food produced are lost affecting the volume available in the market, ”she said.
