The report that food inflation drove the headline inflation rate to 33.2 percent, up from 31.7 percent recorded in the month of February dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Vanguard newspaper reports that at the backdrop of sustained rise in prices of staple food items in the market, Nigeria has recorded an unprecedented food inflation rate of 40 percent in March 2024.
Economists and financial analysts explained that the development would put more pressure on the purchasing power of average Nigerian and they also predict that the trend will continue for some months before stabilising.
The food inflation drove the headline inflation rate to 33.2 percent, up from 31.7 percent recorded in the month of February.
The figures released yesterday by National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, in its Consumer Price Index, CPI, report for March 2024, represented a 2.09 and 1.5 percentage percentage points increases month-on-month.
But the analysts see a wider headline inflationary rise in this month to 34.6 percent, representing a 2.4 percentage month-on-month rise resulting from the recent hike in electricity tariff.
Analysts at CardinalStone Finance Limited, a Lagos based investment house, indicated that further inflationary upswing should be expected following the recent drastic hike in electricity tariff.
They stated: ‘’The inflation outlook is biased to the upside, a consequence of the recent implementation of a new electricity tariff. For context, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) have hiked price for Band A customer from N68 to N225 per kilowatt hour.
‘’Nevertheless, we see some downside risk from the recent currency sustainability. ‘’Overall, we project inflation to print 34.6% in April 2024.’’
The newspaper says that the Federal Government said yesterday it will ensure Nigeria has a voice in the development and regulations of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on global stage.
The government said it became imperative for Nigeria to be an active participant, considering that there would soon be global convergence on the ways AI were developed and deployed by global powers.
The Minister of Communications, Innovations and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, stated this at the opening ceremony of a workshop on National Artificial Intelligence Strategy in Abuja.
The theme of a four-day workshop titled “Developing the High Level Strategy and Implementation Plan for a National AI Strategy for Nigeria’’.
Tijani said digital technology was a reality in Asia, America, and the Europe, adding that the reality should be the same in Nigeria and Africa, as Nigeria could not afford to be left behind.
He said: “The US, UK and Asia have inputs on how AI is developed and regulated. Right now, there are lots of silos regarding the ways and manners AI are developed and applied.
“In a short while, there will be a convergence on AI systems, so Nigeria should be part of that global super power in the development and regulations of AI.
“AI is going to change the narratives in all areas of human endeavours and we are here to develop a strategic roadmap that will enhance our knowledge, skills, participation, development, and deployment.
“Any technology that has potential of a watchdog on how we think and what we do, our goals should not be restricted to what we get as a nation but what it will mean to humanity as a whole.”
The Punch reports that Nigeria witnessed its sixth power grid collapse of 2024 on Monday, as electricity generation on the system collapsed from 2,583.77 megawatts at 2 am to 64.7MW around 3am before the grid was restored later in the day.
Although the Transmission Company of Nigeria attributed the cause of Monday’s grid collapse to a fire incident, it had consistently blamed gas shortage for power generation and the vandalism of power infrastructure for the recurrent cases of grid collapse in Nigeria.
Nigeria generates an average of 4,000MW of electricity for an estimated 200 million citizens across the country.
But this is hardly sustainable, as the grid continues to record incessant collapse due to gas supply constraints, transmission infrastructure vandalism, and liquidity crisis, among others.
Data from the Independent System Operator, an arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, showed that only one electricity generation company, Ibom Power, was active at the time of the grid collapse on Monday morning.
Power generation on the grid crashed further to 44.5MW around 4 am, before rising to 132.29MW an hour later.
The grid collapse was confirmed by Jos Electricity Distribution Company. The Head, Corporate Affairs, JEDC, Dr Friday Elijah, in a notice to customers, said, “The current outage being experienced within our franchise states is a result of loss of power supply from the national grid.
TCN, in a statement issued in Abuja by its spokesperson, Ndidi Mbah, said the fire incident caused a partial disturbance of the nation’s grid.
The newspaper says that naira has continued its resurgence against the United States dollar, appreciating N1,136/$ at the official market and N1,050/$ at the parallel market at the close of trading activities on Monday.
This was as traders predicted the dollar’s fall to below N1,000 before the end of the week.
At the official foreign exchange market, data from the FMDQ Exchange, a platform that oversees the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market, revealed that the naira surged by 6.1 per cent or N69 from N1,205/$ recorded on Friday to N1,136/$ on Monday.
The total daily turnover dropped slightly to $251.60m on Monday, from $281.34m recorded on Friday.
The intra-day high also improved significantly, closing at N1,227 per dollar from N1,265 per dollar quoted on Friday. The intra-day low appreciated by N100/$1 as the dollar was quoted on the spot at N1,000 on Monday, stronger than the N1,100 quoted on Friday.
The improved rate followed a string of foreign exchange directives by the Central Bank of Nigeria aimed at stabilising the naira. The apex bank last month said it had successfully resolved all valid foreign exchange backlogs, as pledged by the CBN governor, Olayemi Cardoso, addressing inherited claims amounting to $7bn.
Data from the FMDQ also indicated that total inflows into the NAFEM increased by 41.7 per cent to $3.75bn as against $2.64bn in February – the highest level since March 2019 ($6.07bn).
GIK/APA
Nigeria: Press spotlights increase in inflation rate to 33.2% in March’
