The Federal government has revealed plans to start using railway waggons to transport food items as part of measures to reduce the prices of food items across the country. This is coming after the Federal Executive Council last week set up a task force to advise the government on how best to address the rising cost of food items.

According to the Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, the task force submitted an interim report which identified that the hike in cost was “not due to shortage but high cost of transportation”. In fact, food items were usually moved across Nigeria with heavy trucks which use diesel. However, due to the increase in the price of diesel, transportation cost also soared.

“We will also work with state governments to reduce delays experienced by trucks along the roads through all sorts of taxes by local governments,” he said.

Anita Fatunji