Prices of food stuffs and groceries have gone up significantly, putting fear in residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) that food may be priced out of reach of the poor if the lockdown imposed by authorities to curb the spread of coronavirus pandemic continues.
City News conducted market survey at Abaji, Kwali, Gwagwalada, Kuje and in some neighbourhood markets in Karu, Nyanya and Jikwoyi and found out that prices of stables and groceries have skyrocketed.
The food sellers who spoke with our reporters said the lockdown is beginning to create scarcity of food items.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari ordered cessation of movement in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja for an initial period of 14 days with effect from 11pm on Monday in a bid to contain the spread of the pandemic.
The Federal Capital Territory Administration has also directed that markets in the territory can operate three times weekly. The directive indicated that the markets will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays from 7.000 am to 2:00 pm.
The survey showed that prices of yam, grains, garri, onions, meat and other vegetables have all risen.
A garri seller at Karu market, Charles Nwankwo, told City News that the lockdown has stopped transporters from bringing new food items, adding that they (retailers) have started running out of stock.
“Our garri comes from Edo State which is now almost impossible to bring new stock because of the interstate ban. The price of a measure of garri has increased from N170 to N230”.
On his part, Ado Mustapha, said they have increased the price of yam from 500 to 800 per tuber.
“Our drivers are stuck at Keffi and we are running out of stock. The people we buy from have increased the price and we also have to increase ours. We have different sizes of yam tuber but the prices have all risen. The one we sell at N500 has risen to N800 while the one we sell at N2000 has risen to N2500,” he said.
Bashiru Isa who sells grains told City News that prices of some of the grains have also risen.
“The measure of beans we sell at N200 is now N250. The price of local rice has risen from N400 to N500 per measure but the prices of maize, guinea corn have remained the same because there is no much demand,” he said.
A vegetable seller, Hamisu Saminu, said “A basket of onion that we used to sell for N400 is now N500. The prices of tomatoes, pepper and other vegetables have all risen”.
The price of meat has also gone up according to Abubakar Dahiru, who said that a kilo of meat that used to be N1500 is now sold at N2000.
He said “A cow that used to be N200,000 is now sold at N260,000. As a butcher, if you do not increase your price, you won’t make any profit”.
The traders also lamented decline in their sales, saying residents already stocked up food stuffs in their homes ahead of the lockdown.
Some shoppers at the market bewailed the soar in the prices of food stuff and called on the traders to review the prices down to cushion the effect of the lockdown on the residents.
Aisha Kabir said “The traders have increased the prices of all the goods in the market. They don’t have pity on their fellow citizens. I think this is not the right time to make profit”.
Justina Andrew said “Some of us could not stock up food because we do not have money. We are daily earners which means we have to go out daily to get money to buy food. This increase is inhuman.”
