THE Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has revealed today during the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, that the Federal Government has allocated 20 trucks of rice to each of the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
This initiative marks government’s first steps in tackling the food scarcity issue in the country.
Minister Idris urged the governors to ensure the efficient distribution of the rice to the most vulnerable members of society.
Meanwhile, based on the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s inflation rate has surged to a record high, reaching 34.19% in June 2024.
As anticipated, there was a notable increase in food inflation for June 2024 compared to the previous month.
The NBS report indicated that the food inflation rate for June 2024 stood at 2.55%, marking a 0.26% rise from the rate recorded in May 2024 (2.28%).
The spike in food inflation was influenced by the escalation in the average prices of various food items such as groundnut oil, palm oil (oil & fats category), water yam, cocoyam, cassava (potatoes, yam & other tubers category), as well as tobacco, catfish fresh, croaker, mudfish fresh, snail, among others (fish category).