Tag Archives: Food Prices

FG Task Force Not The Solution To High Prices Of Food Items – Shehu Usman

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The Financial Secretary Mile 12 Market, Shehu Usman, says the task force set up by the Federal Government to bring down the prices of food items is not the solution.

He said, what the government should do is to assist the farmers tremendously, by subsiding fertilizer.

He said it will go a long way in reducing the high cost of food items.

Mr. Shehu made this known on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily.

He however, acknowledged the assistance of the former governor of Lagos state, Mr. Babatunde Fashola for ensuring a lot of farming was ongoing in Lagos state during his term as a governor.

“The former governor of Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, ensured that there was a lot of farming in Lagos state, which easily helped the people of Lagos state to get food items at a Lower price.

“The government could have provided more food when they came in, through importation of food items before closing down the border. For me that’s why food is very expensive”. He said

 

Source: Channels TV

Rise in cost of food blamed on extortion by Police, Army, Customs personnel at ports, checkpoints.

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The Federal Government has blamed the rise in the cost of food prices on what he called extortionist practices of men of the Nigerian Police, Army, and Nigerian Customs Services at the nations various checkpoints and ports.

Members of the joint committee on Agriculture were stunned when the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh made the allegation
yesterday during a budget defence session at the National Assembly.

Ogbeh lamented that despite having written formally to the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, Comptroller General of Customs, Hameed Ali and other heads of security agencies over their officials’ fraudulent practices, the practice had not stopped.

According to him, the high cost of diesel, which now sells for N300 per litre is another factor responsible for the skyrocketing prices of food items, explaining that trucks and vehicles transporting farm produce are powered by diesel.

Ogheh further stated that other factors responsible for high prices of food items include the treaty on free movement of goods and services put in place by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) among member states, which he said gives room for movement of not less than 300,000 trucks of grains outside Nigeria on a daily basis, which the ministry cannot check.

The minister however, assured the committee that the Federal Government would soon ensure a reduction in prices of the food items via the committee set up to that effect, but expressed surprise that farmers were already kicking against the move.

According to him, farmers were angry with him over the move because they see the situation on ground as very favourable economically to them.

The minister said one of such farmers tackled him in Katsina recently, urging him not to tamper with the present price of food items by claiming that he made N4 million from the sales of sorghum, which had catapulted him from the realm of poverty to that of affluence.

Another farmer in Anambra state also claimed to have reaped N1 million profit from the sale of rice as a result of the current market price.

Nigerian government adopts measures to reduce food prices.

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The Federal Government of Nigeria says it has adopted some measures to reduce the price of food items.

This was revealed by the Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, on Wednesday while addressing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting of the Federal Executive Council, FEC.

The Council had last week set up a task force to advise the government on how best to address the rising cost of food items across the country.

Mr. Ogbeh said the task force submitted an interim report to the council on Wednesday. He said the committee had identified that the hike in cost is “not due to shortage but high cost of transportation”.

He said food items are generally moved across Nigeria with heavy trucks and the price of diesel which has gone up has therefore, led to increase in prices.

He said the government had therefore, decided to “start using railway wagons to transport food items.”

The minister said the use of wagons to transport cattle from the north to Lagos has already greatly helped in reducing cost and will be replicated in food distribution.

“We will also work with state governments to reduce delays experienced by trucks along the roads through all sort of taxes by local governments,” he said.

Mr. Ogbeh also said the government has decided to adopt the “Ivory Coast model” in which trucks distributing food items are given special labels.

 

Source: Premium Times

Adeosun, Amaechi, Ogbeh on FG’s committee to force down food prices

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Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has set up a task force to work out a way of reducing the prices of foodstuff.

On the task force are Kemi Adeosun, finance minister; Chibuike Amaechi, transport minister; Audu Ogbeh, agriculture minister; Chris Ngige, labour and employment minster; Okey Enelamah, trade and industry minister, and Suleiman Adamu, water resources minister.

The team was given seven days to present a plan of how to reduce the cost of food.

According to Laolu Akande, senior special assistant on media to the vice-president, Osinbajo put together the team because he was moved by the need to make food affordable to Nigerians.

“Moved by the need to enhance affordability of food prices across country, the Buhari administration has constituted a presidential task force to urgently consider measures that would ensure a steady flow of produce to the market and reverse recent price increases,” he said.

“Giving the directive today at the federal executive council meeting, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, expressed concern at some of the inflationary rates of food prices, noting that the task force will explore options to promote availability and affordability of food items to Nigerians.

“According to him, the task force, which has seven days from today to report back to the council will consider how to remove some of the cost-raising factors that come into play between the farms and the markets and therefore bring relief to our people.

“While there have been reports of bumper harvests in parts of the country, the prices of foodstuff still end up rather high, while some of the produce even end up wasted due to a number of reasons preventing effective transportation delivery to the markets.”

Akande said one of the focus areas of the task force – as directed by Osinbajo – would be the review of the transportation and preservation processes.

“The task force, which would be meeting with the acting president in the discharge of its urgent assignment, will therefore draw out a practical plan and present same to the council next week,” he added.

“The offices of the chief of staff to the president and the senior special assistant to the president on sustainable development goals (SDGs) would also be on the task force.”

World Food Prices Rise To Highest In 18 Months In September- UN

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World food prices rose in September to their highest since March 2015, led mainly by sugar, the United Nations food agency said on Thursday.

Except for a small dip in July, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) food price index has been increasing steadily since January, when it hit a seven-year low.

The index, which measures monthly changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar, averaged 170.9 points in September, 2.9 percent above the month before and 10 percent higher than the same month last year.

Sugar prices surged 6.7 percent in September from the previous month, largely because of bad weather in Brazil, the world’s biggest sugar producer and exporter, FAO said.

While cereal prices declined slightly, meat edged up and dairy and vegetable oil prices increased.

“A lot of the September increase has to do with sugar, so if sugar were to stop increasing, the index would be more or less flat,” said FAO senior economist Abdolreza Abbassian. “But the scope for big declines is not there.”

FAO raised slightly its forecast for world cereal production in the 2016-17 season rose to 2.569 billion tonnes, which would be a new record high and a 1.5 percent increase on the previous season. World wheat output is seen at 742.4 million tonnes, up slightly from the previous forecast of 740.7 million tonnes.

Credit: reuters