The federal government has commenced selling milled rice to staff of various media organisations in Kaduna at subsidised rate of N40,000 per 50kg bag.

The exercise, according to the federal government, is meant to ameliorate the prevailing food crisis and cushion the effects of high cost of food commodities in the country.

The media outlets were allocated 149 bags and every buyer was screened by officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the federal ministry of agriculture for the purpose of transparency and accountability.

Each member of the fourth estate of the realm was entitled to one 50kg bag, while civil servants from different ministries and associations also got their own allocation at their respective offices.

All the buyers accessed the grains from the Point of Sale (POS) with their Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and NIN.

Speaking on behalf of media organisations in Kaduna, the chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kaduna State Council, Asma’u Halilu, expressed gratitude to the federal government for subsidising the rice at N40,000.00 per bag.

Mr Halilu said: “Comparing this price to the soaring market price, one has no option than to thank the government for the supply of the rice.”

She, however, advised the federal government to endeavour to make the exercise a continuous process, to enable those who did not enjoy the current consignment to do so on the subsequent ones.

The minister of agriculture and food security, Abubakar Kyari, had earlier revealed in Abuja during the flagg-off of the exercise that the kind gesture was made possible at the expense and directives of President Bola Tinubu.

“We do not want Nigerians to go to bed hungry, and in his wisdom, the president deemed it important to initiate the food intervention,” he said.

The minister noted that the present challenges were not peculiar to Nigeria, adding that the food intervention was timely considering the hard times and challenges the nation and its citizens were having.

He, therefore, urged the citizens to cooperate with the relevant agencies of the government to work together to ensure that the dream of the present administration to uphold the fundamental right to food for all Nigerians “is achieved.”

The minister stated that: “It is expected that with the injection of 30,000MT (1000 trucks of 30MT each) of this important staple into Nigeria’s food balance sheet, it would not only crash the price of rice but also other commodities.”

(NAN)