Mrs Joy Ayobami decided to give her family a treat for Easter and embarked on a trip to Wuse II market to purchase ingredients for Easter Jollof rice. Having made an initial budget of N8,000, she was left dumbfounded when she discovered that the money would not be able to prepare a pot of jollof rice for her family.
‘The prices of onions, beef, and turkey have all gone up from what I expected from my last visit,’ Mrs Joy lamented. ‘Now I have to cut off some other expenses to release some cash to buy these ingredients for the Jollof,’ she concluded.
Consumers across the country have continued to experience increases in the prices of food items, making it increasingly difficult for them to go to the market at any time because their budget often falls short of market prices.
Recent SBM Intelligence analyses have shown that market prices increased from October to December. Then it experienced a dip in February before rising again between February and March. Price increases in recent times are attributed to fuel scarcity, insecurity situation, poor electricity supply, etc. It is expected that 19.4 million Nigerians will face famine by August 2022.
On average, across the country, the cost of preparing a pot of Jollof increased from N8.007.50 in the third quarter of 2021 to N8,595 by the end of the first quarter of 2022. This represented a 7.3% increase in the cost of a pot of Jollof.
The cost, however, varies from market to market across the country. Consumers residing in the Federal Capital paid more for purchasing the ingredients for a Jollof pot than those in other parts of the country. These ingredients, rice, curry, thyme, seasoning, groundnut oil, turkey/chicken (poultry), beef, pepper, tomatoes, salt, and onions, cost N10,900 at Wuse II and N10,550 at Nyanya market.
Analysis of trend movement shows that the prices increased from October to December. This price increase was attributed to increasing demand for these items for the festive season and welfare packages purchased by organisations for their staff.
However, there was a drop in the price in January. As analysed by the report, this price drop is attributed to ‘consumer belt-tightening.’ This is a situation where consumers have little money to spend and have to look for cheaper alternatives.
Beef merchants in various markets stated that consumers decided to go for cheaper parts such as the intestine and inner parts to save cost.
Furthermore, the rate of unemployment and poverty has led to changes in consumer behaviour.
Another factor attributed to the increase in prices is the fall in economic output. This has led to the continuous dependence on importation to provide for the population. As a result, the country’s food importation bill increased by 45%, from $1.12 billion in 2020 to $2.71 billion in 2021.
This increasing importation in the face of increasing exchange rates leads to increases in the final prices of food items.
Insecurity issues affect the cost of food items for example, it was reported that due to an incident that led to the destruction of a truck of cows in Anambra, beef prices have been on the increase.
An official analysis of food inflation shows an increase from November to December 2021. It increased from 17.21% in November to 17.37% in December. It dropped to 17.13% in January 2022.
While these issues persist, the fluctuation in electricity supply made it impossible for consumers to buy food items in bulk. A consumer narrated her experience as she now has to purchase smaller quantities. This affects the price as she buys at more expensive rates..
What is described as slow policy responses compounds the challenges of food inflation. A report describes the response of the House of Representatives as slow in responding to issues of increasing food prices.
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