The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has embarked on fact-finding engagements with traders’ associations and marketers in Katsina State to curtail the continued rising prices of foodstuffs and other commodities in the country.
The commission was on an investigative mission to the state where it interfaced directly with stakeholders from major markets, union leaders, traders and consumers to gather information that would assist in decision-making to address the rising food cost.
Addressing journalists shortly after the exercise, the FCCPC North-west Zonal Coordinator, Usman Shehu, noted that the commission’s priority remains to unlock the markets and address key consumer protection and competition issues affecting the food prices.
He said, “The FCCPC’s surveillance efforts suggest participants in the food chain and distribution sector including wholesalers and retailers are allegedly engaged in conspiracy, price gauging, hoarding and other unfair practices to restrict or distort competition in the market, restrict the supply of food, manipulate and inflate the prices of food indiscriminately.
“These obnoxious, unscrupulous, exploitative practices are illegal under the FCCPA. In this exercise, the commission will develop a concise report of its inquiry and make recommendations to the government by Section 17(b) of the FCCPA and initiate broad-based policies and review economic activities in Nigeria to identify and address anti-competitive, anti-consumer protection and restrictive practices to make markets more competitive while also ensuring fair pricing for consumers.”
Some of the union leaders and consumers however accused the government of its inability to control the prices of foodstuff across the country.
A consumer at the Katsina Central Market, Yahaya Mohammed, said, “There is nothing the government cannot do if it wants to regulate prices of foodstuff in Nigeria. The government should do the needful because this has brought untold hardship to our family.”
Also, the Zonal Chairman of the Grain Sellers Association, Maje Mai-Madara, accused those coming from the neighbouring countries of Niger Republic, Chad and Cameroon to buy foodstuffs from Nigeria for being responsible for the rising prices and hoarding of foodstuffs in stores.