The World Bank Country Director in Nigeria, Dr. Matthew Verghis, on Wednesday urged the Federal Government to tackle inflation, particularly food inflation, to bridge the gap between policy and people.
Verghis made the call in the World Bank’s latest Nigeria Development Update (NDU) report, titled: “From Policy to People: Bringing the Reforms Gains Home,” released on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said the NDU report showed that Nigeria had made significant strides in stabilising its economy.
Verghis stressed that growth has picked up, revenues has risen, debt indicators are improving, the foreign exchange market is stabilising, reserves are rising and inflation is finally beginning to trend downwards.
He, however, said despite these stabilisation gains, many Nigerians were still struggling with eroded purchasing power while poverty remained a pressing issue.
The World Bank Director pointed out that the report estimated that 139 million Nigerians presently lived in poverty.
He said while the tight, data-driven monetary policy complemented by a non-expansionary fiscal policy was appropriate to tame inflation, it had evidently not been sufficient.
“Inflation is coming down, but not fast enough.
“These monetary and fiscal policies must be complimented by structural reforms aimed specifically at reducing food inflation, which is driven by deep-seated supply and market inefficiency.
“So the NDU builds on the public sector-led, private-sector-enabled growth agenda outlined in the previous edition,” Verghis stated.
