By Dada Ahmed in Lokoja.
(C). Premium Times Nigeria.
There are strong indications that residents of Lokoja, Kogi State capital and other parts of the state are in for low key Christmas and New year festivities.
This is sequel to prices of goods and services which continue to soar and efforts to arrest the frightening tide remains a mirage.
A market price conducted by our correspondent at the old and international markets in Lokoja, North Central Nigeria, spanning a week, showed that prices of goods and services have continued to accelerate unabated.
Many residents said the development has reinforced the fear of possibility of low key Christmas and New year festivities in the state.
Starting from minute food items such as salt, pepper,tomato, red oil, fruits,onion up to tangible ones like rice,beans, yam, grains and virtually all other consumable items, their prices have increased by more than 100 per cent,as at the time of this report on Wednesday,December 20,2024.
For example, 50 kg of local rice is now sold for between N46,000 and N48,000 instead of of N25,000.
A measure (mudu) of beans,formerly sold for N70.000 has gone up to N1,200, 10kg of Semovita has skyrocketed from N5,000 to N10,000, 10 litres of red oil has increased from N5,000 to N10,000 and above,a packet of maggi and similar seasoning items now has price of between N800 and N1,000,instead of between N400 and N500,sold few months ago.
Garri, hitherto regarded as the food for the common man, has dropped the name as a rubber paint of it now sold for between N1,900 and N2,000, depending on the quality and location where it is transported from to Lokoja.The same quantity of the food item was sold for between N600 and N800 about a year ago. Similar trend is being experienced in terms of the price of meat, fish among others in that category.
Many of the traders, who spoke with our correspondent at the old and International market,Lokoja,identified increase in the pump price of fuel and its multiplier effects on social and economic situation in the country as the major cause of the astronomical hike in the prices of food items and services.
Mal.Saliu Lawal, a cow meat seller at the old market, Lokoja, told our correspondent that it cost him more than N5,000 to transport a cow from Kano to Lokoja to slaughter for sale, besides the hike cost of buying the the animal.
Hajia Maimuna Alli, who transports her yams and other food items from Auchi,Edo State to Lokoja for sale, described the cost of transportation as better imagined than said.
“The cost of transportation in Nigeria, to say the least, is outrageous and that is why prices of food items continue to rise every day.
“Many market men and women don’t make tangible profit anymore but merely manage to break even as 90 per cent of our profit go for high cost of transporting our goods to markets.
She called on the federal government to take a second look at its policy on the removal of fuel subsidy, to ease the effects of the current economic harship on the people, especially the prices of food on the masses in the country.
Our correspondent recalls that while interacting with the Founder/ Chief Executive Officer,Connect Development (CODE),Amb.Hamza Lawal in Lokoja last week, some journalists called on the incoming government of Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo in kogi state, to establish price control board.
They argued that while the current economic challenges in the country contributed immensely to the frightening hike in the prices of food items, the board would check the excesses of traders who cash in on the situation to indulge in arbitrary increase in their prices.
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