The prices of some food items will rise and affect shoppers if the EndBadGovernanceinNigeria protests do not end.
Nigerians took to the streets to protest against the high cost of living and what they call poor governance.
And that is the crux of the matter: apart from the protests, it is the high costs that have led to the protests in the first place.
In Kano, families and small traders are struggling with rising food prices now that people have calmed down following the protests.
This happened when I relaxed the curfew and reopened the market after several days of violence in protest.
Small traders who open shops in their neighborhood still complain about the high prices.
Musa Ibrahim, owner of a Kan Karofi shop in Kano area, said: “Because of the market closing time, our stock is exhausted, so we are stocking up. But when we get to the market, we see that the price of noodles has increased from 16,000 naira to almost 18,000 naira. We cannot do that.”
“We sell a mudu of flour for 3,200 naira, but now it is no longer 4,000 naira. Before, people could buy a whole mudu, now they can only buy a third.”
Many fathers say food prices are not rising well compared to the protests.
A father from Kanotok says food prices have not increased since the market opened.
“In protest, we bought Semovita for 13,000 naira, but now we have jumped to 17,500 naira,” he said.
This man, who has six children and two wives, told the BBC he is not tired of buying large quantities of food; he now only buys what he can cook for the day because it is so expensive.
“Flour is not cheap either, we cannot buy it in bulk, so we decide whether to buy in small quantities and cook what we need that day,” he adds.
Bread sellers in Kano do not even ask Dia members to stop working when they run out of flour.
Alhaji Jibril Abubakar Hamza, the chairman of this association, said: “In protest, we would have bought a sack of flour for 63,000 to 65,000 naira, now it is not even 85,000 naira.”
“Why do we tell all our members in Kano to stop working as soon as the cheap flour runs out? We will not allow anyone to make life difficult for the ordinary people who cut bread.”
In the southwest, prices of certain food items rise, affecting shoppers when protests begin.
Some shoppers say the markets are not open and this affects the way they buy food, leading them to shop in small shops where prices are high.
Some buyers who claim to buy pepper at the popular Mile 12 market in Lagos State are afraid to buy large quantities that are not suitable for their own consumption.
A market woman named Roseline Ahmed from Lagos said her market was not moving because she was no longer able to buy goods for her customers and many of them did not even come out.
“The vegetables I wanted to buy this week, I could not buy because the whole area was dry and the market was not open. People who even bring the vegetables home in bulk want to sell them at a higher price,” said Madam Roseline.
A fish seller added that the price of Titus fish had increased from 6,500 naira to 7,000 naira per kilo.
“As we shop for the market, we will see each other again, we will not change and we will be happy for them, because that’s it. Don’t just leave us like this,” she said.
What causes food prices to rise?
Alhaji Sabiu Bako, the head of the traders’ associations for Kano, explains what happened and why.
“This is what happened during the lockdown: when Pipo was at home, some Pipo would bring out goods and give them to other small traders. They told them to increase their own profits, so they sold at high prices to make a profit,” he explained.
“But we don’t, and they’re trying to lower prices soon.”
“We are asking the public to let this happen to us. That is not our intention.
Tori still says that the traders’ associations have not set up committees to monitor the business practices of traders in the market and ensure that goods are sold at fair prices to the right wholesalers who do not add too much profit.
Cost of healthy eating (CoHD) per day in Nigeria rises to 19.2% – NBS
According to the latest report of the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for the month of June, the daily cost of healthy eating (CoHD) in Nigeria increased by 19.2% compared to the previous month.
This means, for example, that in May 2024, people will get 1,041 naira for a healthy diet, but in June, when they will not even get 1,241 naira, not for the same type of food.
This is the cheapest combination of locally available foods that also meet international dietary guidelines per day. Transport and preparation are not included.
According to the NBS, CoHD numbers are rising faster than general inflation.
