The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, says recent interventions by the Federal Government will crash the prices of food items in the market.
Prices of food items have skyrocketed in recent times, making life difficult for many Nigerians who are now taking to the streets in some parts of the country to protest over the situation.
But to address the problem, President Bola Tinubu on Thursday directed the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to release about 42,000 metric tonnes of maize, millet, and other commodities in strategic reserves to address the rising cost of food in the country.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Thursday, the minister said this move will crash the prices of food items and make food more available for Nigerians.
He said, “The Federal Government has looked once again at the issue of the difficulty of putting food on the table of most Nigerians and has come up with a number of measures to ensure that food becomes more readily available to Nigerians.
“The first one is that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security release about 42,000 metric tonnes of maize, millet, garri, and other commodities so that these items will be made available to Nigerians immediately. The second one is that we have held a meeting with the Rice Millers Association of Nigeria and asked them to open up their stores.
“They have told us that they can guarantee about 60,000 metric tonnes of rice. This will be made available, and we know that this will be enough to take Nigerians the next couple of weeks, perhaps one month.
“They have agreed that they will make that available in the market so that food will be made available. Now the whole idea of this is to crash the prices of these items, and these are measures that will happen immediately.”
He also said that the government is also looking at the possibility of importing some of these commodities temporarily if it becomes necessary.
