NewswatcNigeria can report that the prices of food items have crashed in Hadejia, Jigawa state and there are hopes that this will be experienced in to other states in the North. And gradually be experienced across the country.
Findings show that the crash in food price is as a result of ‘a significant increase in the supply of agricultural produce to the market’.
According to investigations at Hadejia market, food prices were down by about 30 percent. Now, a bag of millet goes for N14, 000 as against N18, 000 while a bag of paddy rice went for N8, 500 as against its previous price of N11, 000. Maize and sorghum were sold at N11, 000 and N13, 000 down from their old prices of N15, 000 and N17, 000, respectively.
It was also gathered that the crash was necessitated by the harvesting of food crops and the corresponding increase in the supply of food items in the market.
Farmers have been recording high yields due to appreciable rainfall and good weather condition recorded this cropping season.
Traders, who spoke at the market, attributed the drop in prices of food items in the state to increase the supply of fresh produce from the farms while a grain dealer, Alhaji Kassim Adamu expressed confidence that prices would further go down because of the harvest by farmers. “The supply keeps moving up and it will push prices further down,” he said.
Meanwhile, Nigeria in talks with the Chinese import-export bank China Exim Bank for a $21 billion loan to finance its 2016 budget and develop new infrastructure projects to boost the ailing economy. This was announced by the minister of budget and national planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma following his visit to China in July and President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to China in April.
