The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Scarcity

  • Obasanjo, IITA seek end to food scarcity

    Obasanjo, IITA seek end to food scarcity

    •Promote Zero Hunger

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, are promoting a new initiative to provide adequate food for Nigerians.

    The project, christened Zero Hunger, is aimed at ending hunger in Nigeria by 2030.

    Leading a team of experts across the agriculture process chain and relevant government ministries and agencies, Obasanjo launched the project with a multi-sectoral stakeholders’ meeting at the IITA at the weekend.

    The meeting drew a roadmap to end hunger in Nigeria by 2030.

    The Nigeria Zero Hunger Strategy meeting, which received support from the World Food Programme (WFP), was organised in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) that seeks to end hunger by 2030.

    Addressing the meeting, the former President said the task of attaining the SDGs could not be left for the government, the civil society or the private sector.

    “It is going to take the collective effort of every Nigerian and our partners. It will require our collective change of mindset to identify the opportunities that abound,” he said.

    Although the MDGs may not have achieved all its targets, Obasanjo said the SDGs presented Nigeria another opportunity to drive its development agenda and end hunger.

    The former President said Nigeria’s continued import of food was unacceptable and requested that efforts be made to address the import bill.

    An angry Obasanjo gave a marching order to the stakeholders to come up with the roadmap on how the country would attain sufficiency in production of carrot and cucumber within 18 months.

    He said: “It is painful, disgraceful and unacceptable that the majority of carrots and cucumbers eaten in Lagos are imported from South Africa.

    “This should stop now. Nigeria has enough fertile land to grow these.”

    The WFP Representative, Stanlake Samkanga, said unlike the MDGs, which were driven by the United Nations, the SDGs would be driven by member-states.

    On the sidelines, IITA Director-General Dr Nteranya Sanginga praised Nigerians for their willingness to drive the initiative.

    He said IITA would provide the necessary support.

    A director with the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Chiji Ojukwu, expressed the commitment of the bank to initiatives that would help Africa feed itself.

    He said the bank was ready to work with Nigerian authorities through the commodity value-chain to end hunger and poverty.

    About 50 key participants from government, ministries, development organizations, international entities, and public and private sectors attended the strategic meeting.

    At the end of the meeting, nine sub-committees were set up to handle the various sub-sectors.

    Obasanjo said the initial target of achieving the goal is 2025, pointing out that the remaining five years could be used to address whatever gap is identified in 2025.

  • Fuel scarcity ends next week, says Kachikwu

    Fuel scarcity ends next week, says Kachikwu

    The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu yesterday expressed hope that almost every part of the country would be adequately supplied with fuel by next week.

    Kachikwu, who gave the assurance while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said the Ministry is mainly solving the problems the current administration met on ground.

    He said: “As at today, we are delivering about 1,200 trucks; by weekend we should be delivering same number of trucks, it will take a bit of days to even-out, but you can see improvement already.

    “I hope by the end of next week, with the refineries helping us to stay on course, every part of the country will get fuel.”

    He said some people, rather than sell products, send them into the hinterlands where they can sell at ridiculous prices and so you are having this price distortions where people are making a lot of money; some are internal and some are external but a lot of it is marketers trying to make quick returns on their investments wrongly.”

  • Why fuel scarcity persists

    Fuel scarcity and long queues are not new to Nigerians, but lately, the situation has become worrisome to the extent that the lowly and the mighty complain. Valuable man-hours are being spent at retail outlets; people park their vehicles at fuel stations overnight, engage in fisticuffs, all in their bid to buy fuel.

    However, major causes of the lingering and seemingly intractable fuel scarcity include policy error, marketers’ lack of patriotism and greed.

    The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) initiated the misstep when it advised the government to assume the sole status of fuel importer even when it knew that the government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had limitations in terms of logistics, storage facilities and distribution network. The allocation of 78 per cent import of the country’s total consumption to the NNPC was ill-advised by the PPPRA. It was a serious pricing policy somersault, and the timing was also wrong.

    The most regrettable of the situation is that Nigerians are suffering from the biting fuel shortage at a time the world is paying less for the same product, with oil producers seeking ways to stem oil glut and low price.

    The Nation gathered that due to low oil prices at the international market, the Federal Government enjoyed uninterrupted five months of over-recovery in line with the PPPRA pricing template. Over-recovery is simply a period when the landing cost of imported fuel is far less than the subsidy level (the open market price or pump price).

    Therefore, within the five months (November 2015 – March 2016), the government made at least N4.20 on every litre of fuel imported. When this is multiplied by the 40 million litres estimated to be the national daily consumption, government would be saving N168 million daily. With this level of saving, the government should not be talking about subsidy now as the savings suppose to offset the current increase in price of importation, following a marginal increase in price of crude oil.

    Considered from whichever angle, the PPPRA misled the government.  The NNPC imports and stores the product in privately-owned depots and pays N3 on every litre. It distributes the product to privately owned retail outlets and pays the marketers some margins for using their facilities. It also pays demurrage for delays in discharge of their imports at the ports. Cargos brought in by NNPC are not cleared speedily like those of the private marketers.

    PPPRA’s advice could have worked if the refineries are working.

    Besides, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is a member of PPPRA Board. The institution failed to advise the government on the need to issue foreign exchange (forex) to the marketers, knowing that the non-issuance of forex would discourage marketers from importation.

    The PPPRA position was that if NNPC alone imports, government will not pay subsidy, a decision that compounded the fuel supply situation.

    What the CBN ought to have done was to offer forex to the marketers, but effectively monitor and track the deals to ensure that such forex were not diverted.

    Some members of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) also cashed in on their lack of access to forex and decided to sabotage fuel distribution by diverting supplies from NNPC to areas where fuel is sold at very high prices.

    In some instances, they sell off the fuel allocated to them at the depot to independent marketers, who are willing to pay more because they sell above the regulated price. They also supply to dealer-owned filling stations, branded in their names. These dealers are independent marketers, whose filling stations bear the brand names of these major marketers.

    But, with the latest sharing of import allocation of 41.73 per cent to NNPC and 58.27 per cent to marketers and the decision of the International Oil Companies (IOCs) to make forex available to importers , there are hopes that normalcy will return to fuel distribution in a few days.

  • Fuel scarcity ends in few days, says NNPC

    Fuel scarcity ends in few days, says NNPC

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday assured that ongoing fuel scarcity in the country would be a thing of the past in the next few days.

    Its Chief Executive Officer (Upstream), Bello Rabiu, gave the assurance while briefing State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while giving an update on the supply and distribution situation of the product.

    Flanked by the Chief Operating Officer (Downstream), Henry Nkem-Obi; Chief Operating Officer (Refineries), Anibo Kragha and Group General Manager (Public Affairs), Garbadeen Mohammed yesterday, Rabiu said  the NNPC will soon flood the market with more petrol than the nation can consume.

    According to him, five vessels were already discharging products in various parts of the country.

    Aside this, he said private importers were also discharging at least 120 million litres of the product to complement NNPC’s imports.

    The only delay now, he said has to do with circulation of the products across the country using trucks as pipelines were still not in good condition.

    He said: “The plan going forward from today, we want to make sure that we give more than what is required in the whole country; the total requirement of the country is just about 1,300 trucks but our plan is to make at least 1,500 available everyday until this thing clears up.

    “So, we want to make sure that we saturate the market in a very short time and I think you can see clearly now that Lagos is almost cleared and Abuja is getting better. Other places will follow.”

    Rabiu said the country was spending about $1.8 billion per quarter to import fuel.

  • NNPC syndicate blamed for persistent fuel scarcity

    NNPC syndicate blamed for persistent fuel scarcity

    A syndicate masterminded by an executive director in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is responsible for the persistent fuel scarcity in the country, it was learnt yesterday.

    An inside source at the corporation told our correspondent yesterday that an executive directors of one of the newly created downstream units is in the habit of selling approvals to select marketers at the depots.

    The source said: “At this critical period, he (executive director) gives up to 20 trucks to one marketer who disposes off the allocations right at the depots while they claim to have taken the products to Abuja.

    “The buyers get the products from the said marketer at about N180 per liter and sell at their filling stations at N200 or more per litre.”

    The source, who vowed that premium motor spirit (PMS ) would remain scarce with the said Executive Director in charge, also said the action of the executive director would continue to neutralise whatever effort the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, invests into finding a solution to the crisis.

    “The executive director,” said the source, “has planted his boys at the depots used by two particular independent marketers for the deal.”

    To sustain the shady deal, The Nation learnt, an NNPC chief recently floated a private depot in a city in one of the South South states.

    Contrary to Kachikwu’s vow that the queues in Abuja and Lagos would disappear by Thursday, more petrol stations were under lock and key in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), resulting in the closure of the service lanes of major roads at major filling stations where fuel was sold yesterday.

    Motorists queuing for fuel at an NNPC affiliate station in Katampe-Kubwa Expressway took over the entire service lane.

    An NNPC station on Olusegun Obasanjo Way also dedicated one lane to fuel queues that stretched into Zone 1 of Wuse District.

    At the Total petrol station opposite NNPC towers, the queue was also endless while there were touts collecting bribe of between N500 and N700 from motorists who would like to jump the queue.

    Black marketers who sold the products in 10-litre jerry cans were sighted on most of the major expressways, selling their products at cut-throat prices.

  • IPMAN disowns fuel scarcity claim

    IPMAN disowns fuel scarcity claim

    The National Operations Controller and immediate past National Secretary of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association Nigeria (IPMAN), Mr Mike Osatuyi has debunked a report that the association was responsible for the fuel scarcity. The report was credited to  Mr. Lawson Ngoa, who claimed to be the interim management secretary of IPMAN.

    Osatuyi in a statement after IPMAN’s national executive council (NEC) meeting in Abuja, said Lawson Ngoa is not a member of IPMAN, but an agent of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources brought in to mediate in the internal crisis of IPMAN.

    He said while the intervention of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu in resolving the internal crisis in IPMAN is appreciated and commendable, the forefathers, past presidents, leaders of IPMAN and the general members of IPMAN nationwide will not allow Mr. Lawson Ngoa, who is not a marketer let alone being an IPMAN member, to use IPMAN’s name as a shield to defend or protect a system failure of the Nigerian national Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    He said: “It is pure defamation of IPMAN’s name to go on air that IPMAN has accepted the responsibility for the scarcity of petroleum products and that Nigerians should hold IPMAN responsible for the scarcity. Crisis in IPMAN with government’s intervention is not new.  Previous government agencies have intervened in IPMAN crisis without blackmail from the agencies concerned right from the time of Alhaji Jarfau Paki, the then Special Assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo on Petroleum Matters, Dr. Oluwole Oluleye, the former Executive Secretary of Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), had intervened in IPMAN matters without blackmailing the Association.

    “Some former Managing Directors of Products and Pipeline Marketing Company (PPMC) had also intervened in IPMAN matters without destroying IPMAN’s name. IPMAN controls over 80 per cent of the retail outlets in the country and IPMAN has partnered with previous governments to solve previous fuel crisis without damaging the association name.”

    He continued: “It is also on record that no member of IPMAN has voiced out against peace since this government stepped in to resolve its crisis few days ago. That is evidence that IPMAN and all members want peace and are ready to embrace peace for seamless operation of the association’s administration and by extension the Nigerian oil industry.

    “IPMAN doesn’t want any government agents, representatives, coordinators that will add more wound to the association’s injury or destroy the association’s name that was established over 35 years ago. IPMAN members nationwide have invested trillions of Naira in the Nigerian downstream oil sector.

    He added: “Lawson is not aware or knowledgeable of the gravity of his statement to IPMAN and Nigerians who are suffering for weeks for somebody’s system and planning failure. It is unfair statement and he has to apologize to IPMAN and Nigerians for deceiving the populace.

    “Lawson should tell the public if IPMAN issues import permit, allocate foreign exchange (forex) for import, or involved in import planning of NNPC and import allocation formula, among others? He has no authority or mandate to use IPMAN’s name to shield any of the government agencies for any operational or administrative mismanagement. IPMAN is ready to work with the government in ensuring products availability.”

  • Fuel arrives at Lagos ports to end scarcity

    Fuel arrives at Lagos ports to end scarcity

    The Products Petroleum and Marketing Company (PPMC), yesterday in Lagos, assured Nigerians that the fuel scarcity will end soon in Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna and other cities.

    Speaking during a media parley, which had representatives of major oil marketers in attendance, its Executive Director, Supply and Distribution, Justin Ezeale, said it has become necessary to solve the problems in the badly affected areas of the country so that normalcy could return.

    He said the Federal Government was aware of the  problems arising from fuel distribution in the country, hence its decision to deploy proactive measures on the issue.

    He said seven cargoes of petrol arrived the country on Tuesday for onward distribution to various parts of the country, adding that 294 trucks of fuel were distributed in Lagos yesterday ( Tuesday), while another 336 trucks of fuel would be supplied tomorrow.

    Ezeale said Abuja has got its own supplies as well.

    He said: ‘’The Federal Government has embarked on massive importation of fuel in order to end the lingering fuel scarcity. As at today, seven cargoes of fuel have arrived the country for distribution to major cities. We have taken into cognisance that the country consumes 40milliion litres of fuel daily, and we would ensure that fuel supply goes round the country.

    ‘’PPMC meets with major marketers and representatives of the Federal Government everyday since the fuel crisis started a few weeks ago. The government is feeling the pains going through by Nigerians, hence the decision to meet regularly with stakeholders in the value chain in order to strategise on the issue of ending the fuel problems.’’

    He said the government is engaging the services of the Nigerian and Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), to monitor the supply of fuel from depots to the filling stations, stressing that the decision was borne out of the need to stop diversion of petroleum products.

    Ezeale said the police has been helpful in this regard, stressing that officials of the NSCDC were drafted into the issue to complement the efforts of the police.

    He warned that selling  fuel above official pump price by   marketers, was wrong, warning that PPMC and the Department of Petroleum Resources(DPR) have sent their officials to various parts of the country to monitor and sanction erring marketers.

  • How petrol scarcity is affecting workers, by NLC

    Labour yesterday highlighted the woes workers are passing through as a result of the ongoing scarcity of petrol.

    Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Ayuba Wabba said the crisis has affected workers productivity adversely nationwide.

    He said: “If you look at the scenario it is a reoccurring decimal, people are facing serious fuel challenges from one day to the other.

    “This is affecting productivity, it also put workers on unnecessary and undue pressure because you know that the salary is fixed.

    “Anytime there is an increase in any commodity either power or petroleum product certainly it deplete that available income at the disposal of the worker.

    “So, it is workers that are at the receiving end and in that way you can see that the workers will begin to come late and the management will say you are coming late without making a redress on the alarm factor.

    “Those are the clear issues and I think that government must look at the policies and tackle the situation head long,’’ he said.

    He said government must fashion out medium and long term measures that would fixed the problem holistically.

    He noted that the issue of fuel scarcity had been on since 1999 and there was need for drastic action to be taken.

    “It means that the prescription for solving the fuel situation cannot take us to the promise land.

    “Then if it cannot take us to the promise land, why should we continue to do just a quick fix on this very major issue?’’

    Wabba, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said the refineries should be made functional to remove untold hardship the people are going through and to boost the economy.

    He said that the NLC had done an extensive research on the four refineries and findings revealed that the refineries could still be classified as new ones.According to him, some of the refineries around the world are built in 1981, saying there is an Indian refinery that has stayed for over 100 years.

    “The argument that the four refineries in the country cannot meet our domestic needs is false.

    “We have seen refineries that have lower capacity but through the process of upgrading and upgrading the capacity of refining were able to meet locally and international needs.

    “So, if Kaduna refinery can be upgraded, Port Harcourt refinery, among others, their capacity of refining can also be upgraded and with adequate maintenance these refineries can work for over a 100 years.

    “It is just that we are not doing what is right. That is why they are referring to our refineries as scrap.

    “They want to buy and upgrade them in that way monopolising them.

    “So, the argument is flat that is why we have remained consistent on our position that once we get the policies right, then it will be okay for us to move forward,’’ he said.

    Wabba gave an instance of Chevron multinational oil company that had been in Nigeria for many years but did not have a refinery in the country.

    He noted that Chevron had refineries in Singapore even when that country did not have oil.

    He explained that “what Chevron does is to transfer our oil from Nigeria to Singapore and refine it there and bring it back as a refine product for us to buy. “So, we are then paying the transportation back and front and the cost of refining the product, this is the scenario.

    “So, why is so difficult for them to build those refineries in Nigeria where they are doing production for over 30 and 40 years.

    “This is because of corruption. The Federal Government must wake up,’’ he said.

    But Group Executive Director, Commercial and Investment of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Dr. Babatunde Adeniran, said yesterday that the fuel crisis will soon be over.

    Speaking in Benin after monitoring the sales of petrol in filling stations, he said: “Nobody is happy with what is happening despite all the efforts we have put in place. The bottom line is the amount of forex available. The problem is not peculiar to Nigeria. Refineries in Europe are changing their configuration from winter to summer.

    “Our Refineries are coming up. We can now supply crude to Port Harcourt and Warri. We are making effort to push crude to Kaduna refinery. To push crude to Kaduna will take about 10 days. They are warming up already in Kaduna to receive crude.”

    In Benin yesterday, petrol was being sold for N250 per litre. The NNPC Mega filling stations had not dispensed petrol for over four days.

    Adeniran noted that other Group Executive Directors of the NNPC visited other parts of the country to get first hand information about sales and distribution of fuel.

    He said he had gone round and noticed long queues at some filling stations e not dispensing products.

    Adeniran listed causes of the fuel scarcity to include inadequate forex, configuring refineries abroad from winter to summer and pipeline vandalism.

    He urged Nigerians to bear with the corporation as according to him, “fuel will soon be available as soon as we have this summer configuration which is peculiar to Nigeria needs”.

    The NNPC chief added:  ”I have seen long queue and see where they are selling and where they are not selling. It is a situation that is not palatable”.

  • Kachikwu, PPPRA leadership crisis and fuel scarcity

    In the last 45 days, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has been bogged down by a leadership crisis. The tussle is believed to be fuelling the biting petrol scarcity. Stakeholders are worried that if not resolved, it may hamper PPPRA’s role in ensuring smooth operation of the downstream sector. EMEKA UGWUANYI reports. 

    All is not well at the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA). A leadership crisis, which is threatening to tear the agency apart, is believed to be partly responsible for the biting fuel scarcity.

    Since February 15, when the Federal Government sacked the heads of parastatals and directed the most senior officers to take charge, all of them complied, except PPPRA which then had two acting Executive Secretaries.

    This made many to question the  government’s sincerity to enforce reforms, PPPRA sources told The Nation.

    The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) wondered why the staff of operating/marketing companies should be drafted as Executive Secretaries of PPPRA, a regulatory agency, when there are competent hands.

    A meeting between PENGASSAN and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, to resolve the issue ended in what the Union described as “mere promise”.

    The union also approached the National Assembly to protect the PPPRA. It insisted that it was wrong to  appoint staff of operating/marketing companies as Executive Secretaries.

    Earlier, the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) invited the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), the Acting Executive Secretary and PPPRA Management to appear before it last February 25 and March 22.

    The acting Executive Secretary, Mrs. Sotonye Iyoyo reportedly made efforts to douse the tension over what is hindering the agency’s performance, it was learnt.

    According to PPPRA sources, though Mrs.  Iyoyo is well known in the industry, Kachikwu is reportedly shopping for another acting Executive Secretary within the PPPRA management. This, it was learnt, is an attempt to pre-empt the union against the appointment of marketing companies’ officials.

    What is disturbing is the desperation in naming a Manager on level 14 over about eight level 16 officers without first redeploying or retiring them. This, a source said is in bad taste.

    The source alleged: “The new acting Executive Secretary is a novice in PPPRA’s operations. The aim is deliberate – to allow some faceless external forces to call the shots.The acting Executive Secretary runs a referral style of administration where she consults big wigs in operating companies before taking decisions. It’s unfortunate indeed.

    “Her appointment as the acting Executive Secretary has nailed the PPPRA and made it a lame duck and an appendage of marketing companies. PPPRA is a shadow of itself, from a robust, independent regulatory agency on its creation in 2003 to a rubber stamp organisation.”

    In a March 11 letter, Senate President Bukola Saraki referred the union’s agitation to the Senate Committee on Downstream.The union is hopeful that the National Assembly will end the impunity at PPPRA, which began after the removal of its pioneer Executive Secretary, Dr. Oluwole Oluleye, the sources said. According to the source, the fuel crisis, the lopsided allocation and unlevel operating environment are the antithesis of what the agency was set up to do.

    “The leadership of the PPPRA is a huge joke. The disturbing aspect is that Dr. Kachikwu was hoodwinked into believing that the choice of Mrs. Iyoyo was genuine. It is so glaring that the choice of another acting Executive Secretary buttresses the union’s allegation that there must be something cynical and curious about the manner of her appointment,” the sources added.

    The PENGASSAN-PPPRA branch Chairman and Secretary, Comrades Victor Ononokpono and Ghide Muhammad said the union would reveal the reasons for the haste in the appoinment.

    The union had advised President Muhammadu Buhari on how to appoint an Executive Secretary from a long list of those who understand the industry. The union alleged that there is a clique of  influential officials in the public service that determines who becomes what under Kachikwu’s leadership. They misguide the minister, who may not be in league with their grand plan, it added.

    The source said: “The greatest minus for Moses Mbaba, the most senior official when the presidential directive for CEOs to hand over to the most senior officers in their organisations came is his forthrightness. He is a disciplinarian and an honest public servant. There was the fear of his not willing to be part of a cover-up of so many untoward activities. So, to discredit him, a purported waiver was said to have been obtained to appoint another acting Executive Secretary under the pretext that he was not technical enough.

    “PPPRA is characterised by poor leadership and the lack of operational independence vindicates the Union’s agitation for independence. The PPPRA Board should be immediately constituted. It is unimaginable that petroleum marketers are not able to get foreign exchange (forex) from the Central Bank of Nigeria when the apex bank is on the board of PPPRA.

    ‘’How could distribution of import allocation be lopsided if all the stakeholders represented on the board participate in the process? Who protects the consumer against predatory tendencies of operators?”

  • Scarcity of bread looms in Abia

    Scarcity of bread looms in Abia

    Aba, the commercial nerve of Abia State and other parts of the state may witness scarcity of bread if the threat of bakery operators in the state was anything to go by.

    Although efforts to reach the leadership of Bakery Operators in Aba failed, The Nation authoritatively gathered that consumers of bread and other flour products may look for substitute if the market price of flour continues to rise in weeks ahead.

    Our correspondent who visited many bread stands in Aba and its environs reports that some of the bakery operators who could not survive the harsh condition of production have closed down, while the price of bread that made the stand witnessed a fifty percent increase. This is even as some of the bread sellers feared that many bakery operators may soon wound down.

    According to some bread sellers and bakery operators who pleaded anonymity, they attributed the closedown of some of the local bakeries to scarcity, high cost flour, cost of fueling and maintaining their machines and generating set including other production expenses.

    “Some of our colleagues who could not cope with the cost of flour and other things, including payment of staff have closed down for business, at least for the moment. Flour is costly and people are not advised to use bromate in preparing bread because of the said negative implication it has on human health. So, there is no way people can cover their expenses at this time that the economy of the country is biting hard on people,” a bakery operator said.

    The source however hoped that the federal government would wade into the situation by addressing some of the bottle necks that gave rise to the cost of flour in the market, stressing that a further increase on the price of bread means creating more hardship for bread and bakery food consumers.

    The source feared that if nothing urgent was done to save bakers from over expenses; many more bread will be out of stock from the stands or will leave them with no choice than to further increase the price of bread and other bakery products in order to cover the cost of their production.

    The source disclosed that bakers may be forced into a striking action in the nearest weeks to further push their demand for a reduction on the price of flour from its present market price.

    Some residents of the commercial town that spoke to our reporter over the issue expressed worries over the rapid increase in the price of bread and other bakery products, stating that it will be difficult for them to source for other alternatives to bread and other flour products.

    The buyers who lamented that the situation has narrowed their choices, however appealed to the respective authorities to see ways of addressing the situation by reducing the price of dollars and to encourage people who can afford to import flour into the country to do so.