Staple foods like rice, garri, beans, and yam, among others, have continued to rise in price, despite the Bola Tinubu government claiming otherwise.

Special adviser to Mr Tinubu on policy communications, Daniel Bwala, had during an episode of “The Morning Show” said, “The current food inflation has gone down because food prices are going down. The general inflation of the last month was far better than the previous month.”

However, a survey conducted by Peoples Gazette at the Ile-Epo market in Lagos State on Sunday revealed that Mr Bwala’s claim was misleading.

The survey showed that although beans retained its price of N140,000, a bag of rice is now N102,000, up from N80,000. White garri costs N46,000, up from N41,000, while yellow garri now sells for N39,000, an increase from N36,000.

A trader at the market, simply identified as Dike, said the dollar has been the problem. He urged the federal government to come up with a final solution to the continuous hike.

“You don’t know how much it is to import goods? What about noting the levies and illegal levies? Our own is to make profit. We don’t set up a business with the intention of it running at a loss. If levies are increased, we will also increase the price of the commodity to recoup the money lost from it, just in case,” he said.

“We have to increase prices of goods to get our money back. It’s a difficult situation. The way customers price our market makes us speechless, but if we don’t sell, then the products will spoil,” another trader said.