Bwari (FCT), Oct. 12, 2023: Some residents in Bwari Area Council, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have decried hike in the prices of perishable food commodities in the city centre.
The residents on Wednesday in Bwari said that the high cost of food items had impacted negatively on the living condition of people.
They attributed the hike to increased cost of petro which has increased the cost of transporting the items from the point of production to the markets.
The residents called on the Federal Government to subsidise the cost of petrol and transportation of food commodities in the country.
A resident, Mrs Helen Benjamin, said she resorted to cooking with firewood, as against use of charcoal and gas in order to cope with her petty “Akpu” cassava business.
Benjamin said: “The cost of gas, kerosene and even charcoal have increased so much, that is why I have resorted to be using firewood due to economic hardship.
“In a week, I buy a bundle of firewood for about N3000 from the market which I use for almost two to three weeks to cook my Akpu.”
Another resident, Mr Festus Ogedegbe, who deals in wholesale of food items, also reiterated the unbearable increase in the cost of most commodities in the market.
According to Ogedegbe, Director of Fadev Enterprises Ltd., this has resulted to low patronage of his goods.
He said that many food production companies had folded-up due to high cost of gas, which contributed to change in the prices of foodstuff.
The director also attributed the low patronage to poor electricity power supply in the community.
“A bag of Rice at wholesale now sells for N53, 000 as against N45, 000 to N50,000 , Spaghetti was N8000 now N11000, macaroni which was N8000 now goes for N11000.
“We used to buy noodles at N6500 but now it is N7500, a 25 litre of groundnut oil was N35,000 but now we buy it at N38,000.
“Bag of sugar was N38, 000 but has increased to N40,000, a bag of flour was N28,500 now it is N32,000 , a dust bin basket of onion and tomato which was N1500 and N2500 respectively is now N3000.
Another resident, Mrs Agatha Eze, a garri seller, lamented that things had become very tough for her family due to the economic situation in the country.
“Business is not as usual, I used to sell a bag of white garri at N17,000 but now it is N20,000, while the red one which used to be N20,000 is now N24,000,” she said.
For his part, Mr Ola Quadri, a livestock buyer at the Bwari market said:”I feel pain, because there is no option for us than to also increase the cost of our commodity.
“The cost of transportation is so high due to increased price of petrol and diesel and this has greatly increased the cost of our product in the market,’’he said.
Products such as bag of charcoal usually sold at N2800 is now N3500, a set of five tubers of Yam usually N2500 is now N6000.
A basket of Potato usually N2500 is now N3200, retail bag of foreign Rice sold at 36,000 is now N47,000 and local rice of N37,000 is now N39,000.
Meanwhile, a big size of local chicken which was sold at N3000 is now N5000, a big size of Goat sold between N25, 000 to N30,000 is now N80,000, Ram often sold at N70,000 is now N120,000.
