Prices of key food items have gone up significantly in the past two months, further compounding the pains of consumers, BusinessDay findings show.
BusinessDay’s checks at Oshodi and Mushin markets in Lagos reveal that the prices of household and perishable goods are all going up.
‘‘The irony is that as the purchasing power of Nigerians decreases, the price of the very items they seek to purchase will continue to increase rapidly, creating a double jeopardy situation,’’ Cheta Nwanze, head of research, SBM Intelligence, said.
Consumer prices have spiked arbitrarily across the perishable food and non- perishable food baskets.
As of Monday, the price of a 50kg bag of Cameroon pepper rose to N26,000 from between N19,000 and N20,000, a 50kg bag of dried pepper increased by 30 percent to sell for N65,000 from N50,000.
A bag of fresh pepper rose by 41.7 percent to sell at N17,000 from N12,000 and the price of 50kg bag of yellow garri sells for N10,200 against N8,500 it sold last December, which is a 20 percent increase.
However, the price of 25-litre of palm oil fell by over 50 percent to sell for N12,000 from between N24,000 and N30,000, 25 litres of vegetable oil now goes for N15,000 as against N18,000, and a 50kg bag of rice is now sold for between N16,500 and N18,000 against N21,000 within the same period.
A recent data from SBM Intelligence on jollof index, a composite index that tracks the prices of the main ingredients used to prepare a pot of jollof rice, show that the cost of making a meal of jollof rice rose by 32 percent in a period of six months.
According to the report, the highest average increase was in Kano, while it is cheapest to make jollof rice in Lagos than anywhere else. Awka and Onitsha recorded price decreases during the survey period.
BusinessDay findings reveal a mixed grill of feelings as many consumers within Lagos metropolis struggle to make ends meet due to prices increase.
Consumers interviewed express frustration as a result of escalating increase in the prices of most food items as they now live under difficult circumstances owing to the hike in prices of essential commodities.
Iya Biodun, a housewife who resides in Agege area of Lagos State, says she and her family have been hit hard by the rising cost of living.
“Before now, N2,500 was enough to make a good pot of soup but now I use up to N4,000 and the soup would last for just three days for a family of five,” she says.
