FG admits Nigeria facing food crisis, sets up committee to tackle hunger

The Federal Government has inaugurated the Presidential Food Systems Coordination Unit (PFSCU) to provide interventions required to resolve the food security crisis and the rising cost of food items in the country.

Vice President, Kashim Shettima, while inaugurating the unit at the behest of President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Friday, July 12, 2024, said the initiative was part of the present administration's ongoing efforts to tackle hunger.

To be chaired by Shettima, the group comprises selected state governors, representatives of local governments, development partners, and other critical stakeholders.

The unit has also been tasked to coordinate all agricultural activities in Nigeria.

The Vice President said Nigeria is facing a rare food security crisis that requires urgent ideas and resources from stakeholders.

“The nation is facing a rare food security crisis and the sooner we come to terms with the reality, the better.

“Food insecurity endangers the very basis of our democratic experiment and this is why all hands have to be on deck. We are in a food security crisis but it also provides us the opportunity to re-engineer and reposition the nation on a firmer footing,” Shettima said.

Defining the mandate of the PFSCU, the Vice President noted that the unit was not created to usurp the functions of the Ministry of Agriculture, stressing that the prevalent dire situation birthed the initiative.

He also earmarked the Green Imperative Programme, a government-catalysed, private sector-driven, agricultural industrialisation programme, as one initiative which the PFSCU must work to ensure its activation and operationalisation.