FCCPC, Price Gouging and Matters Arising -By Edwin Uhara

“When we were at N50,000, distributors added N20,000 more and sold it at N70,000 per bag.”

“At one point, distributors were making almost N20 million per truckload of 75 tonnes of flour.”

“While we kept our prices low, other companies were unhappy with us and deliberately stopped producing to create a shortage, which caused prices to keep increasing.”

Seeing this, BUA Foods felt it didn’t make sense to keep selling at N50,000 when the market price was at N70,000.”

Although BUA’s production is significant, but Mr. Rabiu acknowledged that there are still two companies larger than theirs.

Other food items such as groundnut oil, red oil, fresh tomatoes and pepper are not left out in this price gouging thing.

Garri that used to be regarded as very cheap has changed, and has also become the food for the rich. A paint bucket has risen to between N2,500 and N3,000, instead of N500 it used be.

According to Ngozi Okafor, a teacher, she observed that even vegetables such as Ugu, green, saint leaf, others, are even expensive. “At times I wonder why our local veggies are expensive.

While there are some prevailing factors like removal of fuel subsidy and floating of the Naira which has caused some adjustments in the cost of production and distribution of goods and services in the country, it should however not be the justification for price gouging and exploitative practices in our local markets.

The same factors are there but currently, a start-up company known as Egoras have decided to be selling 50kg bag of rice for N45,000 while in our various markets, same 50kg goes for between N85,000 and N90,000 per bag depending on location.

According to the Chief Executive Officer of Egoras, Ugoji Harry, he said “That at a significantly reduced price of N45,000 per 50kg bag, Nigerians will be getting some relief from the impact of food inflation.”

He recognised the growing hardships that many Nigerians face in affording basic food supplies. “The current economic situation has pushed many families into extreme financial strain. We understand that food is becoming unaffordable for many households, and as a company, we feel a responsibility to support our communities.”

This rice, which is locally produced, would ordinarily sell for almost double the price, but we are offering it at N45,000 to make it accessible.”

Harry highlighted that the discounted rice is not intended for resellers or distributors.

“To prevent exploitation, we have set a limit of one bag per customer. We want to ensure that as many households as possible benefit from this initiative, and we don’t want people buying in bulk just to resell it at a profit. This is a way of giving back, and we’re trying to reach everyday Nigerians who need this the most.”

He said customers can pre-order through egomart.org to secure their bags of rice, which will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Egoras initiative is quite commendable and should be emulated by other companies.

Accordingly, Nigerians should throw their weights behind the FCCPC as it seeks to protect Nigerians from the crushing effects of price gouging, price fixing and exploitative practices in our various markets.

FCCPC will serve Nigerians better when we all support it’s activities and not condemnation.

Therefore, now is the time to prove our patriotism by rallying supports for the activities of FCCPC to defend the  Nigerian consumers from exploitative practices.

Comrade Edwin Uhara is A Public Affairs Commentator