Despite claims by presidency, finance minister says food prices are rising
- The minister of finance, budget and national planning, Zainab Ahmed has said food prices are rising
- The minister made the statement when she spoke during a programme on the NTA
- Ahmed said it would be good if subsidy could be targeted at certain sectors
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Despite claims by the presidency that food prices in Nigeria are reducing, the minister of finance, budget and national planning, Zainab Ahmed has said food prices are rising.
The minister made the statement when answering questions on the NTA programme, Good Morning Nigeria.
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She, however, said it was unlikely that the prices of food would rise further because of the increase in the price of petrol, adding that most trucks conveying agricultural produce use diesel and not petrol.
Ahmed stated that it would be good if subsidy could be targeted at certain sectors and not to all Nigerians as was done in the previous regime.
Responding to a question, she said, “It is true that food prices are going up and as I said earlier on, sensible subsidy is the one that is done on production, not on consumption because when you use gasoline in your car, you burn it and you have to put it in your car again and burn it."
According to Daily Trust, the minister explained that the petrol subsidy was removed because of the drop in the federal government’s revenue.
Ahmed pointed out that fuel subsidy was not sustainable because the government would not have the money to pay marketers.
She said deregulation must be made to work since the government cannot afford subsidy payments.
In other news, the federal government has said that from October it will begin to convert cars and generators so that they can run on gas following the recent increase in the price of fuel, Channels TV report.
Timipre Sylva, the minister of state for petroleum, who disclosed this on NTA’s ‘Good Morning Nigeria’ on Monday, September 14, said the move to cushion the effect of the hike.
While noting that this will be done free of charge for all Nigerians, Sylva added that the government's actions would reduce carbon emissions.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has been given seven days ultimatum to reverse the hike in prices of electricity, petrol, and all other social services in the country.
Failure for the Buhari administration to head this ultimatum will result in an indefinite industrial action and national protest from Wednesday, September 23.
The Trade Union Congress (TUC) gave this ultimatum after the union met on Monday, September 14.
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Civil societies kick, plan mass action against fuel price hike | Legit TV
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