Consumers and traders of rice in Ilorin the Kwara capital have lamented the rising price of the food commodity saying that rice had become a food for only the rich and festivities.
Some of them spoke in Ilorin on Thursday decried the increase in price of food commodities in the market.
Mrs Bunmi Afolabi said that she had resorted to eating rice once in a week because it was unaffordable.
“My children love rice, before now we eat rice almost everyday, but I have made them to realise we cannot continue to eat it like before, it has to be once a week.
“A bowl of rice now costs between N1200 to N1300, and this is what we eat at once, because we are a family of six with teenagers.
“There is actually nothing that is not expensive, you cannot even substitute rice with noodles or spaghetti, they are equally expensive, something quick has to be done about this inflation rate”, she lamented.
Mr Adamu Abdullahi, a family man said “we are 15 persons living in my house, normally we cook a paint rubber of rice, but now we do not even cook rice in my house again, we only get to eat it at ceremonies.
“The cost of food commodities especially rice is alarming, thank God it is yam season, we eat more of yam now, though yam is not as cheap as it ought to be, but it is still manageable.
“We do not have money, and here we are being starved indirectly by inflation. Where do we turn to?
“As much as the common man is praying for things to get better, the government should also look at doing all it can to reduce this hardship”, he lamented.
A rice trader, who simply identified herself as Ajoke blamed the rise in price to economic instability in the country.
Ajoke who said a bag of rice now costs between N38,000 to N42,000 attributed the increased price to unstable foreign exchange.
“Now that the naira is over N700 in the markets, it is expected that things will become the more expensive.
“Inflation is staring us in the face and it seems we are not doing anything about it.
“Rice is one food that Nigerian families cannot afford not to have at home, but here we are no one is even coming to buy.
“We the traders are also being impacted, the patronage is very low and I am not happy about it”, she said.
Speaking separately with Saidat Abubakar a yam seller and Ismail Bako who sells beans, both said that patronage of their food commodities had not improved because people complained of no money.
Abubakar said a pack of six medium sized tubers of yam sold for N3000 to N3500 while bigger sizes ranged from N4500 and above saying that it was still quite expensive to what is expected.
Bako on his part said that a bowl of beans now sold for as high as N800, he also lamented the increase of all wares and commodities in the market.
“I just pray this situation will change, he said.
A farmer, Mr Remi Adedayo said, the heavy rains had also contributed to the hike in price of rice.
Adedayo said that roads have been damaged by flood waters, making it difficult for transportation of the commodity to market places.
“We believe the price of rice will come down after the rainy season. Transporting the product from one place to the other is a bit difficult now.
“The roads are bad, some trucks get stuck on their way and eventually some of the rice bags get spoilt because of the rains.
“That is partly why there is scarcity and increase in price”, Adedayo said.
A litre of palm oil and vegetable oil now sells for N1200 and N1500 respectively.
