Olusegun Ariyo
The Federal Government, through the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC, has said grain hoarders and smugglers are responsible for the persistent hike in food prices in Nigeria.
The Executive Vice Chairman of FCCPC, Tunji Bello, made this known at a town hall meeting with industry leaders, micro, small and medium enterprises, MSMEs, market heads, farmers, transporters, and service providers on Wednesday in Kano.
Bello said FCCPC investigators had discovered that some grain merchants were stockpiling newly harvested grains in warehouses to create artificial scarcity, exacerbating food inflation in Nigeria.
“Without caring for the consequences of their action on fellow countrymen and women, some of these unscrupulous actors go as far as taking some of the food items they had mopped up from the farmers or the markets and smuggling them across the borders to sell at premium, thereby endangering our national food security,” he said.
He called on the Kano stakeholders to collaborate in ending unethical practices that contribute to price inflation in the national interest.
“Don’t get us wrong; we are by no means saying everyone is guilty here. We only have few bad eggs involved in such unethical practices,” he added
Bello, in addition to grain hoarding, also identified price fixing and artificial barriers imposed by market associations, such as entrance levies, as other unethical practices.
