Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s president has asked the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stop providing foreign exchange for food importation.

This was made known in a statement issued on Tuesday by the presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu.

In the statement, Shehu said the president gave the directive is to ensure the steady improvement in agricultural production and attainment of full food security.

The president was quoted to have said this while he played host to the governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC), to the Eid-el-Kabir lunch at his country home in Daura.

The president said the foreign reserve will be conserved and used for the diversification of the economy, and not for encouraging more dependence on foreign food import bills.

“Don’t give a cent to anybody to import food into the country,’’ he said.

The president was said to have noted some states like Kebbi, Ogun, Lagos, Jigawa, Ebonyi and Kano to have already taken advantage of the federal government’s policy on agriculture with huge returns in rice farming, urging more states to plug into the ongoing revolution to feed the nation.

“We have achieved food security, and for physical security we are not doing badly,’’ he said.