Price Of Food Items Will Drop Soon – Says Tinubu’s Minister, Idris
The price of food items in the market is expected to drop soon, says Nigeria’s Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris.
It is worthy of note that there has been outrage from different quarters across the country following the recent surge in food prices, which has posed significant challenges for citizens.
The development has prompted protests in various regions of the country.
In response to this pressing issue, President Bola Tinubu has instructed the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to release approximately 42,000 metric tons of essential commodities, including maize and millet, from strategic reserves.
This decisive action, according to Idris, aims to alleviate the burden of high food costs and ensure greater accessibility to food for the Nigerian population.
The Minister emphasized that these interventions by the Federal Government will effectively drive down food prices and enhance food availability across the nation within the shortest time.
Idris stated this while addressing journalists in Abuja on Thursday shortly after a meeting. He said, “The Federal Government has looked once again at the issue of the difficulty of putting food on the table of most Nigerians and has come up with a number of measures to ensure that food becomes more readily available to Nigerians.
“The first one is that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security released about 42,000 metric tonnes of maize, millet, Garri, and other commodities so that these items will be made available to Nigerians immediately. The second one is that we have held a meeting with the Rice Millers Association of Nigeria and asked them to open up their stores.
“They have told us that they can guarantee about 60,000 metric tonnes of rice. This will be made available and we know that this will be enough to take Nigerians the next couple of weeks, perhaps one month.
“They have agreed that they will make that available in the market so that food will be made available. Now, the whole idea of this is to crash the prices of these items, and these are measures that will happen immediately.”
Additionally, he mentioned that the government is also exploring the potential of temporarily importing some of these goods in the event that it becomes absolutely essential.
