Food stuff vendors, including middle and market traders, have called on the federal government to put in palace modalities that will crash the prices of petrol, diesel and electricity to achieve a reduction in the prices of food items.
Blueprint survey shows a reasonable number of market women and men pointing accusing fingers at not only the steep increase in the prices of petroleum products, but the scarcity of the commodity.
They gave the example of BUA cement being sold by the company at N3,500, but gets sold at about N8,000 at the retail end, all because of transport logistics, including numerous check points on the roads.
An onion seller, Ismalia Yusuf, said the price of the good would have been tolerable in Lagos, but for the price of petrol and diesel and its prevailing circumstance.
According to Yusuf, the price of onions is about N160, 000 and above in Lagos, but far lower in the north, refusing to reveal the real price for a bag of onions in the north.
Another woman who goes as far as Benue to buy yams, lately bush markets within the south west, blamed petrol, diesel as well as both legal and illegal checkpoints as reasons prices of food had remained high.
Simply known as Iya Calabar, she sells a bit lower than the big players in the food market.
According to her, she simply dashed to the north and back to sell at lower margin to leverage on frequency.
According to the chairman of BUA Cement, Abdul Samad Isyaku Rabiu, “so, we directly pushed to ensure that the price of cement is not getting higher than what it is today.
“But then again, you have areas where everything is dollar-dominated. Energy is the biggest cost. And our energy today is denominated in dollars. We buy gas to power our plants mainly. And gas is priced in dollars.”
Ibrahim Dogo, a driver of one of the trucks that brings tomatoes from the North to Lagos, told Blueprint that the increase in transportation was beyond them.
According to him, the prices of diesel and petrol are astronomical, and that the high transportation is a function of fuel price.
“You don’t expect us to run our business at a loss. We will be out of business”, he said.
The Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission(FCPC), Mr Tunji Bello, had, recently, raised concerns over the unreasonable pricing of consumer goods and services, as well as the detrimental practices of certain market associations.
He cited an example where a fruit blender, commonly known as Ninja, was being sold for $89 (about N140,000) at a popular supermarket in Texas, USA, while the same product was being sold for an exorbitant N944,999 at a supermarket in Victoria Island, Lagos.
The FCCPC’s investigation into the act revealed some level of worry about the arbitrary price hike, which Bello described as a threat to the nation’s economic stability.
He also pointed out that under Section 155, violators, whether individuals or corporate entities, face severe penalties, including substantial fines and imprisonment if found guilty by the court.
However, he emphasised that the current approach was not punitive but rather a call for stakeholders to embrace patriotism and cooperation.
“Under Section 155, violators, whether individuals or corporate entities face severe penalties including substantial fines and imprisonment if found guilty by the court. This is intended to deter all parties involved in such illicit activities,” Bello had said.