The continuous hike in prices of food items has sparked a growing cause of concern for Nigerians especially as Muslim faithfuls join the rest of their counterparts around the world to celebrate Eid el Kabir. To this end, Channel Network Afrique crew visited the popular Wuse market in Abuja, to find out how the traders and buyers are coping with the worrisome trend. Enquires by correspondent Ugochi Ugbaja revealed that a bag of local rice which sold for 18,000 in 2020, now costs about N26,000 to N28,000 while the price of foreign rice has also skyrocketed. Other food items like beans, groundnut oil and cooking ingredients are not excluded. For these traders, Chukwuebuka Okeke and Esther Emmanuel, sales for this year’s sallah is the worst in the last two years with low buyer turnout, due to high cost of goods which they say change upwards on daily basis. Meanwhile, buyers like Rosemary Ebuta and Bola Adebayor in their reaction blamed the hike in prices of food commodities to the current state of the nation’s economy and not the sallah celebrations. In view of these prevailing and dire circumstances, these Nigerians want the government to do all in its power to upturn the nation’s economic stance towards improving its citizens welfare.
