Residents of Maiduguri, the Borno state capital are worried over what they have described as economic crisis, following a drastic increase in consumable items in the market as a result of the ongoing violence and insecurity being experienced in the state.
A resident, Hajiya Uwani Saleh told Daily Post today, that she went to the market but could not buy food for the family as the money she went with was not enough to buy anything due to price hike.
She told DailyPost that, a bag of rice in the market has suddenly risen from N8,000 to N10,500, bag of onions which used to sell for N1,500 is now N5,000 and a cup of pepper which used to be N150, now stands at N300, a hundred percent increase.
When DailyPost went to Maidiguri on Monday market to confirm the prices of food items, it was discovered that economic hardship will in no distant time hit the state which may result to hunger if the government doesn’t take immediate measure in tackling the situation. Already, the traders have lamented that the task they pay security personnel on different roadblocks before getting their goods to the market was responsible for the hike..
A trader, Mallam Hussaini Ahmadu told DailyPost that they are often being harassed by security operatives who collect money from them whenever they go to bring goods. Justifying the increment, he said that to recover was to slightly increase the price of the goods, otherwise they would be selling at a loss.
According to him, apart from the security operatives, it is very hard for those who bring food items to the state to get their goods to the state on time due to checks on the highway.
Ahmadi Julius, who sells garri told DailyPost that, he had to increase the price of a bag of garri from N6,000 to N9,500 because it had become very difficult for him due to security situation in the state.
DailyPost also observed that, it is not only the prices of food items that have sky-rocketed, but also detergents and other household needs, a situation that has become a major challenge to many families in the state.
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