Govt. To Stabilize Prices of Food

Nasarawa State Government says it is taking measures to ensure prices of food commodities are stabilized in the state.

State Commissioner for Trade, Industry and Investment Barrister Abubakar Imam Zanwa disclosed this during a meeting with the state leadership of Traders and Marketers Association at his office in Lafia.

According to the state commissioner for Trade, Industry and Investment Barrister Abubakar Imam Zanwa parts of the measures government is putting in place was the planned distribution of palliatives to the poor to cushion the effects of the hardships people are going through.

While attributing the increase in the prices of food items to hoarding commodities by some companies, Barrister Abubakar Zanwa said the Ministry will look into the issue with a view to finding lasting solution to the problem.

The Commissioner called on the leadership of the Traders and Marketers Association to take bold steps towards sensitizing their members on the need to subsidize prices of their commodities as part of their contributions to ease the difficulties people are facing.

Earlier, the State President of Traders and Marketers Association Alh. Musa Turaki Gamji told the commissioner that they were at the Ministry to brief him on the steps so far taken to bring down the prices of food items just as he highlighted hoarding, subsidy removal and double taxation as reasons for hike in prices of food commodities.

Turaki Gamji used the medium to make a case for government to support Marketers by removing double taxation and to introduce policy that will discourage hoarding.

Meantime, the state leadership of the Traders and Marketers Association inspected Modern Rice Milling Machines owned by a businessman in Lafia who said his intension is to ensure rice produced in the state is processed to woo more buyers.

The Marketers led by their chairman Alh Turaki Gamji were also at the Rice Mill Lafia where they appealed to the traders to subsidize the prices of their products as a way of cushioning the effects of the present economic hardships just as they explained that the hike in the price of rice was largely due to the subsidy removal among others.