By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
There is no doubt that Nigerians are going through hard times as the prices of groceries have climbed to the mountain top with many citizens unable to afford daily meals.
Also, those who cannot miss bread in their breakfast menu will have to make do with the alternatives as some bakers are closing shops due to the high cost of production.
A bag of sachet water popularly called “pure water” has jumped from N100 to N150 which resulted to increase from N10 to N20 for a sachet.
Mostly affected by the spiralling inflation are the cost of groceries as a 900 gramme pack of Golden Morn Cereal has risen from N900 in the month of July to N1800 at present while a 400g pack of Peak 456 baby milk which cost N900 two months ago now sell for N1500 at most of the grocery stores in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Prompt News investigation also revealed that a loaf of medium-sized bread is now sold for N700 from N450 price just a month ago in Abuja.
Prices of other food items like dairy products have gone beyond the purchasing power of ordinary citizens.
A visit to the daily markets in the FCT showed that famine looms in the land as not many people are able to access adequate food supplies because they don’t have the financial muscles to buy their needs.
Also, at Garki Markets in FCT, a bag of foreign rice, which was previously sold between N24,000 and N26,000, now goes for N35,000, while a mudu is sold between N900 and N1,000.
Before now, a mudu of imported rice was sold for between N750 and N800.
The price of a bag of beans has also skyrocketed to N70,000 as against the previous price of N50,000 while a mudu of beans is now N700 compared to the N500 it was previously sold for.
A bag of maize that contains 100 mudus is now sold between N37,000 and N38, 000 while a mudu is sold at the rate of N380 and N400 respectively as against the N200 it was sold for before.
Chief Gideon Abraham who runs a provision store at a shopping complex in Galadimawa decried the high cost of food items, pointing out that it is not the making of store owners.
According to him: “we are not happy to increase the prices of our goods but what can we do when we also paid higher to get our supplies from the companies that supply us the goods.
However, a worried resident of FCT who came to one of the popular shopping malls in Abuja metropolis but pleaded anonymity said that except the federal government intervenes, more Nigerians will face the harsh economic hardship in the months to come.
“It means that when people are unable to afford food supplies it will result in malnutrition, starvation, disease, and high death rate and it will soon get there except the government intervenes”, our source insists.
