Rice producers in the North East region of Nigeria have revealed reasons why price of rice continues to rise.
The rice farmers and processors described multiple taxes, high costs of electricity, and transportation of the food item to other parts of the state among others as causes of the incessant rise in price of the staple food.
Findings by Investors King showed that rice had been sold in 2018 in Nigeria at the rate of N14,000 per 50-kilogramme bag before it moved to N17,000 in 2019. But the price had gone up to N33,000.
The Federal Government had banned importation of foreign rice, thus giving a boost to the production of local rice that is positioned to replace foreign ones on Nigeria’s dietary palate.
Nigerians had thought that the price of rice would reduce since local production had been supported by the Federal Government, but the reverse appears to be case as farmers have identified government as one of the reasons for the continuous increase in the price of rice.
According to one of the rice farmers, Musa Arab, government bombarded producers of rice with multiple taxations, saying that it was creating more hardship for consumers in buying the item.
Arab, a leading rice farmer and processor in Gombe State and Northeast region, while explaining the peculiarities of rice production in Gombe, said multiple taxations were affecting flow of business in the state, adding that the industrial cluster area in Nasarawa were being inundated with different taxes by the state and local government officials.
According to him, once taxes were considered in the value chain of production, production prices automatically jacked up.
He advised the government to harmonise some of the taxes, so that once producers pay once, they don’t need to pay for another one.
Arab further explained that 50kg of rice is produced at the rate of N24,000, adding that after adding the cost of settling taxes from different quarters, it would add up to N26,000.
He said other factors that make rice price to increase are expensive transportation of the goods, saying that producers used to pay N800 per bag to Port Harcourt but now it is N2,500 per bag as a result of the high price of gas. He added that high cost of transportation also force the producers and retailers to review upward the price of the rice.
The farmer also decried epileptic power supply and high cost of electricity bill as reasons for skyrocketing price of rice.
He said in December, 2022, the rice farmers had an issue with Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JEDC) about the power supply, adding that the company installed prepaid metres for them instead of the old method of metering.
The rice producer said the cost of using prepaid metre was adding more pain to the farmers and that the electricity suppliers had been increasing electricity bills on the postpaid metres.
He called on the Federal and State Governments to subsidise the production of rice in the country for the ease of Nigerian Masses.
