This palliatives crisis reinforces the need for Nigeria to mass-produce the following food items at affordable cost

0
This palliatives crisis reinforces the need for Nigeria to mass-produce the following food items at affordable cost Brandspurng
This palliatives crisis reinforces the need for Nigeria to mass-produce the following food items at affordable cost Brandspurng

This palliatives crisis reinforces the need for Nigeria to mass-produce the following food items at affordable cost

  1. Rice
  2. Garri
  3. Noodles
  4. Cooking oil
  5. Yam
  6. Bread
  7. Eggs
  8. Tea
  9. Bottled water
  10. Powdered milk

If the minimum wage is N30,000 per month, basically, we need to come up with a formula whereby about 5kg of all these items can be purchased at a quarter of that. For Nigeria to be at ease with herself, a man who is the sole breadwinner of a family of four should be able to feed his wife and two kids on all these items for a month at no more than N7,500.

This palliatives crisis reinforces the need for Nigeria to mass-produce the following food items at affordable cost Brandspurng
This palliatives crisis reinforces the need for Nigeria to mass-produce the following food items at affordable cost Brandspurng

It is either we find a way to reduce the prices or we increase the minimum wage so feeding costs no more than a quarter of take-home pay. How we step up mass production of food items is a challenge we need to face as a people.

How many Nigerian food companies can churn out 1m kg bags of rice a month? Mass production is what brings prices down and until Nigeria gets around this problem, we will continue to be inflation-plagued.

Across the board, our inability to mass-produce goods is our biggest failing as a people. We have great tailors for instance but they sew suits in ones and twos, whereas a Hugo Boss factory will churn out 5,000 suits a day.

This is not really a government matter as everywhere else in the world, it is the private sector that has pioneered mass production. I want to see private capital injected into the Nigerian economy to churn out these goods in their thousands.

Ayo Akinfe, born in Salford, Manchester, is a London-based journalist who has worked as a magazine and newspaper editor for the last 20 years. Ayo attended Federal Government College Kaduna and obtained his first degree in history from the University of Ibadan.