Efforts Ongoing to Arrest High Cost of Food Items – FG

By Abdullah Bello

The Federal Government says it is strategising to arrest the high cost of food items in the country.

After the first meeting of the Presidential Committee on Emergency Food Intervention, the Minister of Information, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, said succour would soon be felt.

He explained that the meeting discussed the opening of the strategic food silos across the country, saying however that the modalities of releasing their contents to the public will be laid out in their subsequent meetings.

“Government is very concerned about what Nigerians are going through; therefore government is taking some action to ensure that Nigerians have some relief, in terms of the availability of food on the table. Some of these will involve unlocking the foods that are available in most of the storage facilities around the country, very soon a solution is in sight for Nigerians”, he stressed.

He said the government had begun discussions with major local millers and commodity traders to get information on what they have in stock, adding that such will provide insight into the appropriate level of intervention needed.

Alhaji Mohammed Idris emphasised that the government’s intervention was extremely necessary to thwart the bad intentions of those wanting to take advantage of the situation to make matters worse.

“What the government is noticing is that there’s still food in this country. Some people are taking advantage of the situation, especially, the depreciation in the value of our currency, which has led to the cost of these food items also going up. What I will tell Nigerians is that the President has directed that government needs to stem this tide. Government will not fold its arms and see the way Nigerians are suffering”, the Minister said.

The Minister of Information said the government would make a definite pronouncement on the outcome of the ongoing deliberations on the current food crisis being experienced.

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