A business executive and the Chief Executive Officer of Perfecta Investment Company, Mr Emmanuel Eze has called on the Federal Government and other tiers of government to urgently encourage more Nigerians into agriculture value chain business to contain any upsurge in inflation in future.
Eze, an economist by training who disclosed this while interacting with aviation correspondents last Monday at the Port Harcourt International Airport Omagwa shortly before leaving for Lagos, explained that it was better the government encourage more Nigerians into the ventures, since most of the finished products were in the agriculture value chain businesses.
According to him, the advice was necessary because one of the causes of rise in inflation in the country was too much demand for forex for the importation of finished products.
He said it was wrong for the country to rely always on high price of oil at the international market to contain the rise in inflation and noted that inflation rate would drop domestically, so long the oil price at international market contains to rise.
“This is because our country is an import-driven economy, so it is easier to stabilize inflation through proceeds from high oil prices.
This is the time to produce surplus commodities locally that will crash the prices of goods. We have the capacity to change the negative presently, considering our resilience and entrepreneurial drive among the youths.
“The agricultural value chain should be harnessed to address our quest for the processed food in this country”, he said.
Eze maintained that continuous investment in utilities would reduce the funds being expended on finished product which had pilled pressure on foreign exchange demand.

Corlins Walter