The Federal Government has declared that only buyers with National Identification Numbers (NIN) would have the privilege of benefiting from the sale of the 30,000 metric tonnes of milled rice to Nigerians at the subsidised rate of N40,000 per 50kg bag.
President Bola Tinubu, who was represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, during the flag-off ceremony on Thursday, September 5, 2024, said that the rice intervention by the federal government will be sold strictly on “one person, one bag” basis.
The minister of Agriculture noted that the 50kg bags of rice, with a flat price rate of ₦40,000, are part of the Federal Government’s effort to provide subsidized milled rice to help alleviate the ongoing food crisis and hardship in the country.
He said : "This food intervention can be said to be timely considering the times and challenges we are in as citizens of this great nation.
“As one of the numerous efforts of the present administration to cushion the effect of high cost of food commodities, kindly join me in applauding the immense efforts of the present administration such as the release of 42,000MT of assorted food commodities (AFC) to the vulnerable and the 30,000MT of milled rice which is being flagged-off for sale to Nigerians today September 5, 2024,” he stated.
Kyari while speaking on the NIN verification process mentioned that, a multi-disciplinary government task force has been set up to ensure transparency, vast distribution and the overall success of the initiative.
He further emphasized that the process was designed to prevent Nigerians from obtaining more than one 50kg bag of rice, saying that beneficiaries will be verified through identification methods such as the NIN and phone numbers to prevent fraudulent individuals from having access to more than one bag of the milled rice at the expense of other Nigerians.
“In view of the above, I urge our dear citizens to cooperate with the relevant agencies of government who will try to serve you to achieve this great initiative of government.
“It is expected that with the injection of 30,000MT (1000 trucks of 30MT each of this important staple into Nigeria’s food balance sheet, it will not only crash the price of rice but also other closer food substitutes and alternatives,” he said.
The Director of Strategic Grains Reserve, Ministry of Agriculture, Haruna Sule, revealed that civil servants can have access to the grains at designated spots in the country of sale, by using their Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System details.
“To qualify for the one person one bag, you must have a National Identification Number, of course, you have phone numbers and those in public service are all registered under the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS) platform,” he said.
“Once you have any of these three, at the point of sale, with the NIN logged into the system, a code number and a Treasury receipt will be generated, and with that, the buyer can get to the collection centre and pick up his bag. The receipt will indicate, the time and point of collection to eliminate stampede,” he added.
He further explained that the process entails a buyer providing the code number, which upon inputting the code, a treasury receipt will be issued as proof of payment to the government, adding that the buyer will then receive a receipt indicating the collection point and time.
The minister also spoke pertaining the collection points, saying that it is separate from the sales point.
“At the collection point, you present your code to our officials, and you will be handed a bag of rice", he said.
Recall that in July, the Minister of Information, Idris Mohammed, announced the sale of subsidised rice.
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