Imported foods damaging health of Nigerians - Runsewe, NCAC DG

Promoting Nigerian food culture is a collective responsibility of every Nigerian in order to encourage healthy living, create employment opportunities for our teeming unemployed youths and open up business opportunities at the micro and macro levels.

The Director-General, National Council for Arts and Culture and the President, World Crafts Council (African Region), Otunba Segun Runsewe, stated this in a press statement in Abuja yesterday.

Otunba Runsewe said his call was to draw the attention of Nigerians to the need to patronise made in Nigeria food, promote the Nigerian food culture and discourage the consumption of foreign foods most of which are preserved with chemicals that have a long time negative effects on the human body.

Runsewe added that all nations of the world are devising various strategies of mitigating the effects of Covid-19, noting that the pandemic has come with severe hardship to all citizens of the world, but the promotion of the consumption of our food, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic will be minimised.

According to the National Council for Arts and Culture boss, “Nigerian foods are not only natural and rich in nutrients, but most of our foods are also medicinal and can help to build the body and boost our immune system.”

The Executive Chairman, Business Visa Limited, Alh. Sani Garba in his contribution stated that Business Visa is a non-governmental organization putting together a platform where all the small scale entrepreneurs, especially women and youths can come together and express themselves in terms of availing themselves of business opportunities available to them and come together to harness such opportunities and proffer solutions to their problems.

Alh. Sani Garba pleaded with the Federal Government to create an enabling environment for small scale entrepreneurs, especially the ones in agro-businesses to market their finished products.

Runsewe added that the Nigerian food basket has the capacity to create 2,000 direct jobs and 2,500 indirect jobs in a short term and over 5 million jobs in the long run if sustained.

He urged all Nigerians to promote and patronise Nigerian cultural products as that will help to reduce the level of unemployment and also empower our people economically.