Edo State governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has linked Nigeria's persistent rising inflation to the country's inability to consistently produce and export goods and services.

According to him, the trend continues to affect the nation's economy negatively.

Obaseki said this while receiving representatives from the World Bank, led by the organization's Task Team Leader, TTL, for the Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement, and Livelihood Improvement Support, APPEALS, Project in Nigeria, Manievel Emmanuel Sene, who were on a courtesy visit at Government House, Benin City.

Other members of the group at the entourage of the World Bank delegation include the Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Hon. Stephen Idehenre; his Permanent Secretary and staff from his Ministry, and the National Project Coordinator Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project, L-PRES, Sanusi Abubakar, among others.

The team is in Benin City for the 3rd World Bank implementation mission.

The governor noted that the greatest problem of Nigeria was the fact that the country is not producing enough for importation, with no import buffers.

He said: "Nigerians are in a dire situation and one reason why we are having high food inflation is because of low production as we don't have any foreign exchange anywhere to substitute with imports. We are not producing enough; that is the greatest problem facing Nigeria.

"Whatever we are producing is very low as a country and people now don't have import buffers anymore. When you fly into countries around the world, from their airspace you will see farm demarcation but the same can't be said of Nigeria."