Now, it is a tale of wishing they never went that route since they entered this journey in mid-2023. Traders and food markets all through this duration and for their benefit managed to hatch a business strategy bordering on hoarding essential food, but do they feel good now?

It is a fact that traders who hoard food for excess gain long precede the commencement of President Bola Tinubu’s administration in May of the quoted year.

Their move is buying up bulks from the farmers – hundreds of grain bags in many folds almost like a cartel but now they seem to be having their karma as markets all over the country fortunately see rates drastically falling over the past weeks, particularly entering the Holy Month of Ramadan and 40 days of Lent soon after.

A year ago, these were the events that offered the opportunities of making multiple returns. By artificially creating scarcity towards the spiritual observances, the traders would be practically rich and in a not-too-distant time, Nike Akanni from Iseyin in Oyo State was having that sort of ride.

Having considered the exponential returns gathered as profit in the previous investments she had made, she then requested a ₦1.5million loan to make new purchases.

ALSO READ: Where shoppers should expect a price reduction soon because of the good Naira

This trader, according to a report by The Guardian, planned to stack up many bags of maize in December, as she often does and then gear up the New Year rush in January to make double the investment. But Akanni found that even these days, it is not that easy to predict market rates.

One key problem this Presidency had been intentionally trying to surmount since its shelf life started 22 months ago is food security – ensuring people have enough to eat, a factor better driven when farmers produce enough to feed the populace.

To tackle this critical issue, the administration subsidised agricultural implements and made fertilisers and farmhouse machinery available in order to satisfy the demand ahead, and that is one avenue to digest why there has been a significant reduction in the prices of different foods.

In December 2023, we bought bags of maize for ₦60,000, and by March, when prices went up, we sold them for around ₦120,000 and made lots of money. Here is Nike Akanni, looking back. But this year, we were hoping that prices would go up. Now, we have tied our money down because maize is selling for less than what we bought in December.

Entering these special moments of deep spirituality going on with Muslim and Christian communities, what the hoarders got wasn’t what their 2023 data suggested was the likely outcome.

They were used to storing up maize, rice, beans, and other vital edibles that squeezed inflation-hit Nigerian households require to make a lovely meal in their busy market stall. When the price of these goods goes up due to scarcity, these lots make double or, at times, triple the amount they got from the farmers.

Families and food businesses then struggled to put together decent, affordable meals. Now, the mace of control is lying with the casual shoppers needing one item or the other for their cooking.

ALSO READ: Farmers see food prices becoming affordable in the coming months for this reason

Over the last Christmas holiday, a household buying a 50kg bag of beans needed to pay between ₦100,000 and ₦140,000, but at the moment, ₦75,000–₦85,000 is the going rate.

Rice is essential for a Nigerian delicacy, jollof, which is usually featured during festivities. To prepare enough to go around guests and loved ones possibly visiting, this past December, a 50kg bag was priced at ₦114,000, but for now it has experienced a 37.14 percent drop in its price.

Other rates of interesting customers are a 50kg bag of soya beans shedding from ₦120,000 to ₦60,000; sorghum was ₦140,000, but now it is within the ₦35,000–₦40,000 range. Buyers who desire millet for all its wealth can buy it at ₦40,000 per bag, and maize goes for ₦45,000.

We don’t understand what is happening. We used all our money to store grain in December, and now we don’t have any money left to buy new stock, says Saleh Abu from Kano State, like having a 2024 hangover.

With that problem being fixed at the moment, thanks to Nigerians also enjoying an improvement in the value filling stations offer for their premium motor spirit, there has been only one winner, and that is the buyer.

They had to first suffer before they enjoy the good rate they now see, so maybe that is what happens to the trader blighted by their thirst for excessive profit-making.

ALSO READ: Ramadan nutrition no longer what shoppers worry about

Ayodele Johnson

Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.