The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has commenced fact-finding engagements with traders associations and marketers with a view to identifying factors responsible for the continuous hike in food prices.
Cost of living has remained relatively high across the country despite the recent appreciation of the naira and many Nigerians are wondering what could have been the cause.
The Director Surveillance and Investigations of the Commission, Ms Boladale Adeyinka, said at Masaka village market, Karu Local Government Area, Nasarawa State on Friday that the agency was determined to establish the facts and then crash the prices of food.
Adeyinka said the mission had already traced the major reasons for the high prices of food in the markets to transportation cost from the farm to the market and multiple taxation.
Also identified are high cost of pesticides and the security challenge in the country.
Adeyinka said the Commission would develop a concise report of all the multiple taxes and advise government on how to unlock, remove or reduce the taxes.
“This is a fact-finding mission, investigative mission to gather information directly from the sources. The food price campaign continues,” she said.
“We are here to find out from three levels of stakeholders market executives, sellers and consumers.“This is a big market for direct food supply from the farms to the market so we wanted to see the value chain interacting with cost variables.
“We had a meeting with the market executives to find out if they are issuing levies, taxes, things that are added to the cost, starting from the farmer to the sellers,’’ she said.
Chief Danlami Gimba, the General Chairman, Masaka Market, Karu, said that transportation was the major cause of the hike in food prices.
Gimba appealed to government to reduce the price of petrol to help crash transportation cost which would help reduce the prices of food items.
Some traders, who spoke during the engagement, said the prices of their goods had tripled from their suppliers hence the reason for the hike of prices on consumers.
Mrs Naomi Zakari, a yam dealer at the market, said that one trip of yam containing 100 tubers that was sold to them in Benue State for N15, 000 was now being sold for N50,000.
She said the suppliers had attributed the hike in price to the high cost of pesticides, fertilizers and transportation.
