As Nigerians grapple with the many adverse effects of the economic recession, the Federal Government has assured that the rising prices of food items will be tackled with immediate effect.
The Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, made the disclosure on Wednesday while addressing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting of the Federal Executive Council, FEC headed by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.
Ogbeh stated that the FG’s decision comes in the wake of an interim report submitted by a task force set up last week to advise the government on how best to stem the rising cost of food items across the country, PT writes.
According to him, the committee had identified that the hike in cost is “not due to shortage but high cost of transportation”, adding that food items are generally moved across Nigeria with heavy trucks and the price of diesel which has gone up has therefore, led to increase in prices.
As a result, government has decided to “start using railway wagons to transport food items,” as is the case in the transportation of cattle from the north to Lagos which has drastically cut costs.
He added that government has decided to adopt the “Ivory Coast model” in which trucks distributing food items are given special labels.
“We will also work with state governments to reduce delays experienced by trucks along the roads through all sort of taxes by local governments,” he said.
