There are indications that Nigerians will be faced with extreme hunger and malnutrition as food prices continue to soar despite many Nigerians being low-income earners.
A market survey by Peoples Gazette indicates that a bag of beans currently sells for as high as N100,000. The rise in the cost of beans, for instance, has skyrocketed in one month, especially in major cities across the country.
It was gathered that a bag of beans, which, in early September, sold for N30,000, now goes for between N50,000 and N100,000 in early October.
In Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Bauchi, and Bayelsa, the survey shows that the prices of beans have doubled in the past weeks.
WHAT THIS MEANS:
- The price of a big bag of beans, the ‘oloyin’ variety, ranges from N88,000 to N100,000, while ‘plastic rubber’ costs between N3,500 and N5,500. Another beans variety, ‘drum’, costs between N80,000 and N95,000, while the ‘plastic rubber’ costs N3,000 or N3,500. A big bag of white beans costs between N50,000 and N60,000, while the ‘plastic rubber’ price sells for between N2,500 and N3,000.
- The prices of other staple foods such as rice, yam, egg, garri, groundnut, and maize are also on the rise.
- Groundnut oil cost N27,000 for 50kg and N5,400 for 5kg. A bag of rice costs N30,000 and N4000 for ‘plastic rubber.’ A bag of garri was priced at N16,000.
- In August, food inflation rose to 21.03 percent due to the hike in local food items. The inflation growth and depreciation of the naira against the dollar have put pressure on the prices of commodities consumed by Nigerians, with prices of foods constantly changing.
- The current realities are forcing many households further down the depth of hunger and malnutrition.
With over 40 percent of Nigeria’s population living below poverty line, Nigeria’s national minimum wage- N30,000, which is mainly applicable to civil servants at the federal and state levels has not been implemented by many state governments as they keep citing a lack of finance as the drawback.
The private sector, in the meantime, pays as low as N10,000; an amount that makes life in current-day Nigeria very difficult.
