The cost of making a pot of jollof rice for a family of five has risen by 4.98% to N8007.50 in the 3rd quarter of the year.
This was disclosed in the quarterly SBM Jollof index report for Q3 2021, published by SBM Intelligence.
The report disclosed that prices of cooking gas affected the costs of food prices as it stated that gas sold by gas retail outlets rose from N500 per kg in June to N700 per kg in September, affecting the cost, which has risen from N7,618 in June 2021 in Q2 2021.
What the report said
- The cost of making a pot of jollof rice for a family of five remains high across the country. On average, it will cost N8007.50 which is higher than the average cost in Q2 which stood at N7,618, a percentage difference of 4.98.
- It will cost the highest to make a pot of jollof rice in Nyanya, Abuja at N10,050 and it will cost the lowest in Akwa, where the cost is N6,910.
- Abuja markets have since it overtook Kano in Q3 2018, had the highest cost of making a pot of jollof rice, particularly, at Wuse Market.
- The prices of food in Nyanya (an outskirt market) overtook prices in Wuse, a market right in the centre of Abuja” they said.
Reasons for the rise
The report stated that the cost of cooking gas has risen steadily in the past three months, which has therefore had an effect on the cost of cooking jollof rice.
Interviewees told SBM that gas sold by gas retail outlets rose from N500 per kg in June to N700 per kg in September. They have simply reduced the refill weight per visit to gas refill plants, and there is no long term solution in sight.
The survey added that the price of cooking gas rose astronomically, with the National Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM), an umbrella organisation of cooking gas marketers warning that the refilling price for a 12.5kg gas cylinder might hit N10,000 before December.
“Nigerian consumers are price sensitive and as such, they will explore substitutes, mostly dirty fuels, representing a setback for efforts by government and key private and civil society stakeholders to ramp up gas adoptions in the homes and kitchens of Nigeria. Before the sharp rise in prices, the cost of switching from dirty fuels to cooking gas was a disincentive to most consumers, particularly in rural and periurban areas,” the report said.
It urged that the concept of governance places the responsibility of effecting change not just with the government but with multiple actors, including the entire food supply chain consisting of farmers, processors, distributors and final consumers.
The report stated that a multi-actor strategy that ensures sustainability is needed to stabilize prices including improving market information; invest in agricultural interventions that would improve production levels; de-risk investment in agriculture; invest in food storage infrastructure, and remove import restrictions on essential food items.
“We recommend that solving the problems of food insecurity should take a “whole of society approach” — involving the participation of different stakeholders across the food supply chain rather than the top-down approach,” SBM added.
What you should know
- For Q2 Nairametrics reported that the cost of cooking a pot of Jollof rice was N7,618 in June 2021, marking a 6.93% increase within a period of three months
- Nigeria’s headline inflation in the month of September 2021, dropped further to 16.63% compared to 17.01% recorded in the previous month, according to the recently released CPI report for the month of September, by the National Bureau of Statistics.
- Food inflation, which is a closely watched index also dropped to 19.57% in September from 20.3% recorded in the prior month while core inflation rose to 13.74%, up by 0.33% when compared with 13.41% recorded in August 2021.
