President Muhammadu Buhari regime says Nigerians will have to grow food in their homes to cushion the hardship caused by increasing food prices.

“Nigerians are not going to go hungry,” Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and planning, said on channels TV’s Politics Today Wednesday night while speaking on increasing food prices in the country. “We are encouraging Nigerians to also grow food even within their homes.”

Asked if she feels Buhari-led regime has made life better for Nigerians giving the hardship caused by increasing food prices, Mrs Ahmed said “I sympathise with the citizens. The president is pained by the hardship that citizens undertake especially in terms of food prices.”

She, however, further explained that cost of transportation is one of the factors affecting increasing food prices but Mr Buhari is building “foundational infrastructure” to develop the country. 

“We have to be able to do these investments now. Otherwise, where we will find ourselves in the couple of years will be several times worse than where we are by now,” Mrs Ahmed said. 

In October, Mr Buhari, in his Independence Day speech, had blamed increasing food prices on middle men who hoard food stuffs to trigger artificial shortage and make more profit.

In October, Peoples Gazette’s market survey shows that a bag of beans that formerly sold for about N30,000 now sell for N100,000.