The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says prices of food items such as beef, tomatoes, beans, and yams increased in July.
Mr Ahmed-Habib said the aim was to bring succor to the victims.
He said the gesture was under the special national economic and livelihood emergency intervention to bring succour to the victims.
The items included maize, rice, beans, corn, generators, wrappers, mattresses and plastic buckets.
“On a month-on-month basis, 1kg of tomato increased by 3.97 per cent in April from the N466.60 recorded in March 2023,’’ it stated.
“The use of chemicals for storage is the cause of several ailments such as cancer, among many others ravaging ills in society.”
A large crowd of residents, openly swapped their old N500 and N1000 notes for items like rice, beans, tomatoes, pepper, onions among others.
A bag of maize sells for about N19,000 in most markets now, against the old price of N24,000.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says that prices of selected food items increased in November.
The new figure is an increase from the 20.77 per cent figure recorded in September.
