President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has told Nigerians to brace up for an impending food crisis in the next two to three months.
Dangote, who advised the government to immediately stop the ongoing export of maize abroad by some Nigerians, blamed the development on the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
He spoke during the 4th Annual Nigerian Food Processors and Nutrition Leadership Forum where critical and concerned players in the food processing, health and financing sectors gathered to appraise the food fortification situation in the country.
The forum, which was chaired by Dangote himself, also had in attendance other business leaders in the food processing sector including the representative of the Vegetable and Edible Oil Producers Association of Nigeria (VEOPAN), Okey Ikoro, among others.
According to the entrepreneur, the government and food processors and other concerned parties need to urgently sit at a round table to seek ways towards averting the impending crisis.
Dangote, who noted that the effects of the war are already being felt in the food processing chain, said prices of fertiliser, wheat, maize, among other products, have already gone up.
He said: “There will be a shortage of wheat, maize and a lot of products because as we speak, Russia and Ukraine do almost 30 per cent of the world’s urea and 26 per cent of the world’s potash; and even phosphate also, they are one of the largest (producers) in the world.
“There would be a scarcity of food generally, we would not be able to access fertilizers going forward, we would not see the effects now, but in the next two, three months. Even the US will not be able to do the same number of tonnage they did last year because of this.
“Right now, you start seeing people exporting maize to earn foreign exchange, which I think we need to stop, so that we don’t create shortage; and we need to make sure we grow more so we don’t have a shortage. It is about food security, and it is very, very serious.”