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From TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has initiated a targeted campaign to address the surging food prices by engaging with traders’ associations and marketers.
Recently, the FCCPC carried out a survey to find out factors behind the soaring food prices in Nigerian markets and be able to propose recommendations to the federal government on how to curb the festering food crisis.
In furtherance of these objectives, the South-South Zonal Coordinator of FCCPC, in Rivers State, Mr. Chukwuma Uchegbu, led a team of the commission’s investigators on fact-finding interactions with marketers and traders’ associations in the State to ascertain the factors responsible for the continuous hike in food prices.
The FCCPC noted that it had been conducting fact-finding interactions with traders’ associations and marketers to ascertain factors responsible for the continuous hike in food prices.
Uchegbu said the FCCPC surveillance efforts suggest participants in the food chain and distribution sector including wholesalers and retailers were allegedly engaged in conspiracy, price gouging, hoarding and other unfair tactics to restrict competition in the market.
He said such sharp practices restrict the supply of food, manipulate and inflate the price of food in an indiscriminate manner which is illegal under the FCCPA Act.
He said the FCCPC surveillance efforts suggest participants in the food chain and distribution sector including wholesalers and retailers are allegedly engaged in conspiracy, price gouging, hoarding and other unfair tactics to restrict competition in the market.
Uchegbu said such sharp practices restrict the supply of food, manipulate and inflate the price of food in an indiscriminate manner which is illegal under the FCCPA Act.
According to him, the fact-finding inquiry was an investigative mission to gather information directly from the sources and stakeholders in major markets, particularly executives, market unions, sellers and consumers.
He said the commission’s priority remains to unlock the markets and address key consumer protection and competition issues affecting the prices of commodities in the food sector.
“We have found out that there is a lot of money these people pay from point of purchase. Almost all the people we spoke with said the same. From Benue State to this place each truck coming here pays not less than N250,000 as illegal fees enroute their respective destinations.”
Meanwhile, traders in major food markets, particularly Oil Mill Market and Mile 3 Market in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, have blamed insecurity, fuel subsidy removal and double taxation for the rising food prices in the country.
They expressed fear that prices would continue to sour higher until federal government does the needful, by tackling the problems identified by the stakeholders.
One of the marketers, Ms. Tina Nwokeoma, said she stopped travelling to the Northern part of the country for goods because of insecurity and double taxation on the road.
She said: “I don’t travel to the North again because of insecurity. Where I used to travel to buy tomatoes and pepper, I can’t go there because it is the war zone of what is happening in the country.
“Presently, people are afraid to visit their farmland because of insecurity. We get much of these foods from the North.”
