Ahead of the holy month of fasting coming up in March 2024, Muslim faithfuls in Northern Nigeria have lamented the price hike in food stuffs, foreseeing a difficult situation in the month of Ramadan.
WikkiTimes recalls that Nigeria’s inflation rate has soared to a near 28-year high of 29.9%, exceeding forecasts and December’s figure of 28.9%.
Food costs skyrocketed in January, soaring to a staggering 35.4%! This means everyday essentials like bread, fish, meat, fruit, and eggs are significantly more expensive, putting a strain on household budgets.
Even within a single month, prices are rising fast. January saw the biggest price hike (2.6%) in five months, making everyday purchases sting even more.
Abubakar Shehu, a junior lecturer in Federal College of Education, Gombe noted that food stuffs are so expensive that he spends half of his monthly earnings every month on them.
“Last year by this time, I wasn’t as concerned about buying food items for Ramadan. But now most of the food items like beans and potatoes have tripled. I can only afford barely enough,” he lamented.
Salisu Ibrahim, a data analyst, lamented in the same vein, adding that the only way out of this food crisis is to farm as little as one can afford.
According to him, even though fertilizer is not so affordable for small scale farmers, people should endeavor to farm for their own consumption to surmount pressure in hard times as such.
Sagir Muhammed Ibrahim, a Nasarawa based lecturer, pegged the rising food cost on the removal of the fuel subsidy.
“Everything in this country is tied to petrol, the removal of subsidy is all tied to this. Transportation of these foodstuff is all by trucks and other means that uses petrol
It’s high time we develop our rails and other alternatives outside petrol and above all our attitudes as humans… How can prices be rising every hour for God sake?,”
“The higher the cost of petrol the higher the price of transporting foodstuff and the higher we pay for them. No one will operate at a loss. What you spend determines what price you will peg to get profit. Market is all about profit provided its not exorbitant,
“For Ramadan, Allah will see us through, our marketers and traders should just fear Allah and do what is just and fair,” he added.
For Aishatu Muhammad, an entrepreneur, the Government should find a way to subsidize food in the spirit of Ramadan.
“The vulnerable are already suffering. People cannot take this any longer. Prices should be discounted so as to make the fasting period endurable,” she said.
Similarly, Katsina based civil servant, Ummahanny Bello, predicts that “poverty is knocking on our doors and we need to seek God’s intervention this holy month.”
“While people are struggling to feed, you go to the market and prices keep changing. It is becoming unbearable,” she said.
While the government at the state and federal level have appealed for calm amid promise to ameliorate the situation, there is continued concern as inflation continues to grow at an unprecedented rate.
