Food prices are beginning to rise at an alarming rate in most of the southern states as 1kg of Nigerian locally planted rice sells for about N290 in Nasarawa to Jigawa states but sells for around N950 in Lagos and Anambra states.

These figures were obtained by Flavision from the Selected Food Prices Watch, May 2021, report released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Flavision observed that 1kg of ofada rice sells for N260 in Nasarawa but sells for N940 in Lagos, while 1Kg of the short local rice sells for N290 in Jigawa State but N700 in Imo State.

The same disparity goes for beans where people in Bauchi State buy 1kg for about N200, but in Anambra, the same quantity is sold for N670.

The NBS report confirmed that the price of rice increased by 17% in 2021 from what Nigerians bought in 2020.

The report noted that the prices of foodstuffs were

collected across all the 774 local governments across all states and the Federal Capital Territory from over 10,000 respondents and locations and reflect actual prices households state they actually bought those items.

Some of the prices picked by Flavision in the report read,

Beans; Highest Price, Anambra (N670), Lowest Price, Bauchi (N196); Ofada rice; Highest Price, Lagos (N938), Lowest Price, Nassarawa (N259); local rice, Highest Price, Imo State (N700), Lowest Price, Jigawa (N286).

Medium grained rice; Highest Price, Bayelsa (N619), Lowest Price, Adamawa (N273); Imported rice; Highest Price, Imo (N765); Lowest Price, Borno (N384).

Checks by Flavision revealed that the same goes for prices of yams and potatoes nationwide.

According to the survey by the NBS, a tuber of yam is highest in Ekiti with N563 and lowest in Taraba with N102, while potatoes are highest in Akwa Ibom with N312, while they are N94 in Borno per a group of tubers.

The NBS report reads,

Selected food price watch data for May 2021 reflected that the average price of 1 dozen of Agric eggs medium size increased year-on-year by 17.10% and month-on-month by 2.10% to N541.53 in May 2021 from N530.40 in April 2021 while the average price of piece of Agric eggs medium size (price of one) increased year-on-year by 22.41% and month-on-month by 1.72% to N49.99 in May 2021 from N49.14 in April 2021.

The average price of 1 kg of tomato increased year-on-year by 9.09% and month-on-month by 9.47% to N303.51 in May 2021 from N277.26 in April 2021. The average price of 1kg of rice (imported high quality sold loose) increased year-on-year by 17.46% and month-on-month by 0.65% to N544.09 in May 2021 from N540.58 in April 2021.

Similarly, the average price of 1kg of yam tuber increased year-on-year by 13.96% and month on month by 6.80% to N269.98 in May 2021 from N252.80 in April 2021.

Field work is done solely by over 700 NBS Staff in all states of the federation supported by supervisors who are monitored by internal and external observers. The average of all these prices is then reported for each state and the average for the country is the average for the state.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.