Hike in Food Prices: Nigerian govt to sanction trade associations

Members of trade associations found guilty of anti-competitive practices indiscriminate and irrational hike of food prices are to be sanctioned by the Federal Government through the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC).

Babatunde Irukera, the Chief Executive Officer of the FCCPC, disclosed this on Tuesday during a forum organised by the commission to discuss fair food prices in Abuja.

He said: “We will continue to monitor the market, and where we find that prices are excessive or find exploitative conduct, or find that consumers are being taken advantage of, we will intervene. One of the ways of intervening is unlocking the bottlenecks.

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“That is what I just said, associations that come together to determine at what price beans should be sold, associations that come together to decide that nobody in a particular market should take yam, beans or rice from any other person except their members, we will proceed against them.”

Speaking further, Irukera, said trade unions had constituted cartels to engage in anti-competitive practices that have led to price gouging of basic food items, noting that taking a hard line against indiscriminate food price hikes had become imperative in light of the president’s declaration of food security as a national emergency last week.

“Competition regulation and consumer protection is not only to regulate the big companies. It is not only to regulate the formal sector. It is also to regulate the informal sector. In a place like Nigeria, it is even more critical to find a strategy to regulate the informal sector because, at the end of the day the vast majority of our economy is informal”, Irukera added.

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