Prices of food items such as rice, tomatoes, cooking oil, crayfish and chicken continue to soar beyond the reach of the masses as Lagosians make last minute rush to shop for Christmas.

Inflation in Nigeria reached 21.47 per cent in November, the highest level in 17 years, and far outpacing wage growth, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

While food prices increased steadily in the last week of November, they significantly increased in December, with prices increasing even more on Christmas Eve.

Routine checks by Peoples Gazette at markets in Ogba and Ibafo as well as other retail stores in Ikeja, showed prices for rice, chicken, and other staples had increased further as Lagosians rush to do last minute Christmas shopping.

On Saturday, a 50kg of foreign rice sold for between N50,000 and N57,000 at Sunday Market in Ogba, as against the previous price of N45,000 to N48,000 it sold earlier in the month.

Mrs Agha, a rice retailer at the market, told The Gazette that the last minute price increase was triggered by the usual rush during festive seasons and the difficulty in getting the commodity from the distributors due to increase in demand.

“You know the lastminute rush is always something else, everyone is trying to make Christmas purchases and what we got from our suppliers are limited because of the many retailers have placed orders for bags of rice,” she explained.

At Mrs Agha’s store, 50kg bag of rice was sold between N53,000 and N56,500, depending on the brand of rice one was looking to buy.

At Ibafo market, 50kg bag of foreign rice was still selling between N47,000 and N52,000 as at when The Gazette ran its check on Saturday.

Also, the price of pepper recorded a significant increase compared to what it sold for last year.

Previously costing between N13,000 and N15,000 at Ibafo, the price for a basket of pepper now goes for between N28,000 and N30,000.

Mama Ezekiel, a pepper seller at Ibafo, who spoke with The Gazette, tied the increase in pepper price to cost of transport and the festive season. 

She claimed that a basket of “rodo” pepper, which cost N5,000 two months prior and N3,000 the previous year, was now N28,000 instead.

“You know of the fuel scarcity and how much filling station has been selling litres of fuel, these had affected the price we spend on transporting pepper from where we get them down to our stores so when we add money is to make up for the high cost of transport that is caused as a result of the fuel scarcity,” she said.

Speaking to The Gazette, a customer at the Ibafo market, lamented the high cost of pepper, noting that she got lesser quantity, compared to the one she got when she visited the market earlier in the week to get N5,000 worth of pepper.

“The quantity I got today is so small, I know what I got when I bought N5,000 pepper on Monday evening,” she told The Gazette.

Life chicken was selling for N15,000 minimum price at Sunday market, Ogba, compared to earlier in the week where one could conveniently get a Christmas chicken for as low as N10,000

However, traders have tied the increase to the high cost of chicken feed.