Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, said Monday that food prices were going up
Speaking on NTA’s ‘Good Morning Nigeria’ programme, the minister said it was unlikely that the prices of food would rise further because of the increase in the price of petrol.
Her optimism was predicated upon the fact that most trucks conveying agricultural produce use diesel and not petrol.
Ahmed said it would be good if subsidy could be targeted at certain sectors and not to all Nigerians as was done in the previous regime.
Responding to a question, she said, “It is true that food prices are going up and as I said earlier on, sensible subsidy is the one that is done on production, not on consumption because when you use gasoline in your car, you burn it and you have to put it in your car again and burn it.
“But if you now change the regime and say any truck that carries food or produce, the diesel price is subsidised, you are subsidising production because it means food items get to the market cheaper but as long as you are subsidising consumption, whether it is fuel or electricity, there will always be the propensity for gain in the system and then there is always the fact that you are subsiding everybody and it is not everybody that needs it.”
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