BEVERLY HILLS, February 08, (THEWILL) – The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved some measures to reduce food prices in the country based on the interim report submitted by the food security task force set up last week to explore how best to address the rising cost of food items across the country.
This was revealed by the Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, who briefed State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting saying the committee identified that the hike in cost of food is not caused by shortage but high cost of transportation.
He noted that food items are generally moved across Nigeria with heavy trucks whose operations have been affected by increase in the price of diesel revealing that government has decided to start using railway wagons to transport food items across the country.
“We had a committee set up last week to look at the issue of hike in food prices and we submitted an interim report today. Our work is almost rounded up,” he said.
“We identified the causes of food price increases. The good thing is that there is no real shortage of food. There is food but the prices are a bit too high and Nigerians are groaning under the pain.
“One of the things we found out is that the cost of transportation is becoming extremely high especially because most of our transpiration is by road and diesel prices have gone up. Trucks are finding it difficult to move from place to place at old prices.
“So we considered the following alternatives: using railway wagons along the current railway network. As we did before when we moved cattle from North West to Lagos, we brought down the cost and avoided the multiple taxation on transporters by local governments which delay movement.
“We have decided to work with the state governments and the police to reduce delays. We are going to adapt what they have in Ivory Coast. Trucks carrying foods are given labels. In fact, in Ivory Coast, they cannot be stopped for more than 10 minutes anywhere.
“Even if something serious has happened, the security agencies will follow them to their destinations and come back to investigate whatever has happened.”
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