The Chairman of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, has disclosed the technique President Bola Tinubu used to crash the prices of essential food items.
Rabiu, while briefing State House Correspondents after a meeting with the President on Thursday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, disclosed that Tinubu introduced duty waiver for food items such as brown rice, maize, wheat and sorghum.
He said his company keyed into that policy and was able to import a lot of wheat, maize and rice.
He added that when the shipment started coming and the company started processing, it crashed the prices of some of the commodities.
Rabiu said, “Food prices are coming down in Nigeria and we’re doing quite a lot to support that effort.
“You will recall that His Excellency granted duty waiver last year for certain food items like brown rice, maize, wheat and sorghum to be imported into the country.
“At the time, food prices were very high; the price of rice last year was about N100,000 per 50 kilogramme (kg) bag, and the price of wheat or flour was about N80,000 per bag, maize was about N60,000 per 50 kg bag and pasta about N20,000 per carton.
“Today, I’m happy to inform Nigerians that the price of rice is now about N60,000 from what it was last year of N100,000. Flour is today N55,000 per 50 kg bag and maize about N30,000.
“And this happened because of Mr President’s foresight and vision by introducing that one-off duty waiver for a period of six months.”
He attributed the high prices of food items in the past to the activities of hoarders.
For instance, he said a lot of Nigerian companies bought paddy, which is used to process rice, during harvest season, and hoard it for three to four months
“The moment the season finishes, then the price will double. That has always been the problem. And that does not really affect the farmer in any way because the farmer is getting his N400,000 to N500,000 per tonne of paddy.
“But the people that are buying and hoarding for three to four months, once the season finishes, it goes back up to N800,000,” he explained.
He said the duty waiver granted by Tinubu created an issue for those hoarders, “because the moment we imported and started selling, those hoarders had a lot of paddy they could not sell.
“So, a lot of those hoarders are actually crying now and losing money,” he added.
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