The prices of some food items may drop significantly following the federal government’s suspension of duties, tariffs, and taxes on the importation of food commodities.
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, on Wednesday gave official reinforcement to the suspension that has been in the news in the past few days.
In a post on social media, Kyari detailed the federal government’s measures to address the high food prices currently affecting the nation.
Part of the measures, according to Kyari, is a 150-day duty-free import window for food commodities, which involves the suspension of duties, tariffs, and taxes for the importation of food commodities — maize, husked brown rice, wheat, and cowpeas — through land and sea borders.
“These measures will be implemented over the next 180 days,” Kyari said.
“Imported food commodities will be subjected to a Recommended Retail Price (RRP).
“We understand concerns about the quality of these imports, especially regarding their genetic composition. The government assures that all standards will be maintained to ensure the safety and quality of food items for consumption,” he said.
The federal government’s detailed measures to address the high food prices are coming following the Senate’s call on the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, initiate measures to combat the impending food insecurity in the country.
The Senate adopted a motion on the urgent need to address food insecurity and market exploitation of consumables in Nigeria, sponsored by Senator Sunday Karimi (APC-Kogi) and Senator Ali Ndume (APC-Borno).
It also urged the government to outline measures put in place to combat the situation and address Nigerians on it.
Leading the debate, Karimi said in the last few months, the price of goods and household consumables in Nigeria had been on an all-time high.
According to him, this was leading to a high rate of inflation, weakening purchasing power, and affecting the living conditions of the vast majority of Nigerians.
He said the latest data by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that food inflation in the country skyrocketed to 40.66 percent on a year-on-year basis, representing a significant increase from the 24.82 percent recorded in May 2023.
Karimi said the current market price of food items such as beans, maize, rice paddy, yam, tomatoes, and onions which initially rose by about 40 percent after the removal of petroleum subsidy had increased to between 100 percent and 300 percent with no attributable reason for the increase in prices.
He said insecurity in food-producing regions, bad roads, increase in the cost of transportation, and depreciation of the value of the Naira had been identified as possible factors contributing to increase in price of food items and other consumables.
He, however, said that a greater percentage of the increase in prices of food items and consumables was not only responsible for the factors, rather the greed of merchants, traders, and retailers to make supernormal profits.
“This attitude has been justified on the basis that many members of the political class, technocrats, and corporate elites have helped themselves with public funds without any repercussions in law.
”Nigerian traders have thus resorted to price overcharging to maximize profits,” he said.
