The Federal Government has said only public servants with duly registered National Identification Numbers (NIN) will be allowed to purchase as it flags off the sale of 30,000 metric tonnes of milled rice.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari while flagging off the exercise, said the move is to curb racketeering, and is part of efforts to crash the prices of food in Nigerian markets. Represented by President Bola Tinubu, Kyari said the intervention will be sold strictly “one man to one bag or one woman to one bag”.
He said the rice — which is to be sold at a flat rate of ₦40,000 naira only for 50kg — is the federal government intervention for the sales of subsidised milled rice to ameliorate the prevailing food crises in Nigeria. “This food intervention can be said to be timely considering the times and challenges we are in as citizens of this great nation,” he said.
“As one of the numerous efforts of the present administration to cushion the effect of high cost of food commodities, kindly join me to applaud the immense efforts of the present administration such as the release of 42,000MT of Assorted Food Commodities (AFC) to vulnerable and the 30,000MT of milled rice which is being flagged-off for sales to Nigerians today 5th September, 2024.”
The minister blamed COVID-19, the Russia-Ukraine war, climate change amidst other localized factors/challenges for the high cost of food prices. “This has led to increase concern and risk of food insecurity and general decline in the standard of living globally. I therefore urge us to understand that the present challenges are not peculiar to our great country,” he said.
