September 06, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government has flagged off the sale of 30,000 metric tonnes of rice at a subsidised rate of N40,000 per 50kg bag across the country.
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, announced this on Thursday, during the commencement of the sales at the headquarters of the Ministry in Abuja.
He said, “This food intervention can be said to be timely considering the times and challenges we are in as citizens of this great nation.
“It is my pleasure to welcome you all to this historical, all-important and long-awaited inauguration of the sales of 30,000MT of Federal Government milled rice to Nigerians at a subsidised rate of N40,000 per 50 kilogrammes.
“This kind gesture was made possible at the expense and directives of President Bola Tinubu, who does not want Nigerian citizens to go to bed hungry, and in his wisdom deemed it important to initiate this food intervention.
“In view of the above, I urge our dear citizens to cooperate with the relevant agencies of government who will try to serve you to achieve this great initiative of government.
“It is expected that with the injection of 30,000MT (1000 trucks of 30MT each) of this important staple into Nigeria’s food balance sheet, it will not only crash the price of rice but also other closer food substitutes and alternatives.”
Kyari maintained that given the challenges associated with sales of staple food, the government had put in place certain processes and conditions to ensure transparency, wider reach and success of the exercise.
The Director of Strategic Grains Reserve, Dr. Haruna Sule, while explaining the process, said civil servants could access the grains from the point of sale with their IPPIS and NIN number, while other Nigerians could use their NIN only to access the rice.
“Once you have any of these three, you present it to the sales operators and it is logged on the platform that has been created.
“After this, you proceed to pay electronically with your ATM. Once the payment is done, it is linked to the initial sales operator and it shows that you have paid then a receipt will be issued with a code number.
“With this code number, you will be issued with a treasury receipt to show you have paid to the government. Then, you are given a receipt which shows the point of collection and time of collection; this is to eliminate any form of stampede.
“The point of collection is different from the point of sales and when you get to the collection point, you present your code to our officials and you will be given a bag of rice.
“We intend to have about five to six sales points across Abuja and the duration of the distribution will be for the period they are able to finish sales,” he said.
Sule said that the exercise would be carried out across the country.
