Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator, Abubakar Kyari, yesterday flagged-off the sale of 30,000 Metric Tons (MT) of FGN milled rice to Nigerians at subsidised rate of N40,000 per bag of 50 kilograms.
He said the injection of 1,000 trucks of 30mt each, which amounted to 600,000 bags of rice, was expected to not only crash the price of the staple but also other closer food substitutes and alternatives.
Speaking at the ceremony, the minister said the kind gesture was at the expense and directives of President Bola Tinubu, "who does not want Nigerians citizens to go to bed hungry, and in his wisdom deemed it important to initiate this food intervention".
He noted that the global food chain had been distorted in the aftermath of COVID-19, and the Russian-Ukraine war, climate change amid other localised challenges - food prices, farm yields, food chains, adding that Nigeria was not an exception.
This, he said, led to increase concern and risk of food insecurity and general decline in the standard of living globally.
Kyari said, "I, therefore, urge us to understand that the present challenges are not peculiar to our great country.
"This food intervention can be said to be timely considering the times and challenges we are in as citizens of this great nation.
"As one of the numerous efforts of the present administration to cushion the effect of high cost of food commodities, kindly join me to applaud the immense efforts of the present administration such as the release of 42,000MT of Assorted Food Commodities (AFC) to the vulnerable and the 30,000MT of milled rice which is being flagged-off for sale to Nigerians today 5th September, 2024."
He said the federal government being aware of the potential challenges associated with the sale of an important staple such as rice, at this critical period had deployed a multi-disciplinary machinery of government, as well put in place certain processes and conditions to ensure the transparency, wider reach and success of this exercise.
The measures, according to him, included one-man-one 50kg of rice; verification of intending beneficiaries using relevant identification mediums such as the National Identification Number (NIN) and phone numbers to forestall multiple access to the food commodity by fraudulent individuals at the detriment of other citizens.
The minister, therefore, urged Nigerians to cooperate with the relevant agencies of government who will try to serve them to ensure success of the intervention.
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He said, "I sincerely also wish to use this opportunity to encourage Nigerians to remain steadfast and be patient with Mr. President as his numerous efforts to enhance food security will soon begin to pay off."
Speaking further on the intervention, Director, Strategic Grains Reserve, Dr. Haruna Sule, said the sale will be conducted nationwide.
He said civil servants can access the grains from the point of sale with their IPPIS and NIN numbers while Nigerians can use their NIN only to access the commodity.
The director said, "The procedure is very simple; we have decided to make everything in a transparent manner - for you to qualify to buy the rice, you must have a NIN number, phone number and for the civil and public servants the IPPIS number. Once you have any of these three, you present it to the sales operators, where you present your NIN number to them and it's logged on the platform that has been created."
"After this, you proceed to pay electronically with your ATM, and once the payment is done it's linked to the initial sales operator, and it shows that you have paid and then a receipt will be issued with a code number.
"With this code number, you will be issued with a treasury receipt to show you have paid to government, then you are given a receipt which shows point of collection and time of collection, ans this is to eliminate any form of stampede."
Sule said, "The point of collection is different from the point of sales and when you get to the collection point, you present your code to our officials and you will be given a bag of rice."
Sule said, "We intend to have about five to six sales points across Abuja and the duration of the distribution will be for the period they are able to finish sales."
