Nigerian government looking to lower food prices in markets
It should be recalled that the federal government last week set up a task force on food security to check the rising cost of food items in the market with a one week mandate to report back to the council on Wednesday. While the idea is not to control prices, they will look for the causes of rising costs and treat them.
According to Ogbeh, the hike in cost is “not due to shortage but the high cost of transportation” as food items are generally moved across Nigeria with heavy trucks and the price of diesel has gone up. This has led to the increase in prices. He listed some of the measures which include using railway wagons to transport food items, working with state governments to reduce delays experienced by trucks along the roads through all sort of taxes by local governments and stopping multiple taxations as well as greenhouse emissions.
He also said the government had decided to adopt the “Ivory Coast model” in which trucks distributing food items are given special labels. Also speaking, the Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry, Enelamah, said the FEC has also approved a set of measures to attract investment and boost local production of some essential commodities, such as tomatoes.
source: venturesafrica.com
