By Adewale Sanyaolu
A bleak Sallah it was for muslims as the untamed and rising inflation marred celebrations across the country.
This was as traders in essential commodities which included; rice, semovita,drinks, tomatoes and pepper all recorded low sales.
The bleak celebration may not be unconnected with recent headline inflation figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics at the weekend which saw the May figures spiking for the fourth consecutive month to 33.95 per cent from 33.69 per cent recorded in April.
The sprial effect equally impacted on food inflation which rose to 40.66 per cent in May which was 15.84 percentage points higher compared to the rate recorded in May 2023 (24.82 per cent).
Some of the moslems who spoke to Daily Sun in seperate interviews lamented that their purchasing power has dwindled over the months, hence reducing the volume of disposable income at their disposal.
A moslem leader, Alhaji Kareem Ambali, said he had to cut down on the number of rams he usually purchase from four to two.
He said an average seized ram which usually cost around N150,000 now goes foe N400,000 ditto for all other food stuffs which has hit roof top.
Another moslem, Mr.Sule Ajadi, said he and his fellow moslems had to collaborate to purchase a cow which cost about N800,000 shared among the four contributors.
Prior to now, he said the cow sold for about N500,000 which he alone can comfortably buy,saying the economic situation calls for prudence in spending.
On his part, Mrs. Bilikis Amuda, said he and his husband had to divide the cost for the Sallah celebration.
She said while she made provisions for food stuffs and others ingredients which cost her about N200,00 from her initial budget of N100,000, her husband bought a small sized ram at N250,000.
For traders, it was tales of woes across the various market.
CEO, Yab’s Store, a major dealer in food stuffs, alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks in Ogba, Lagos, Miss Iyabode Babatunde, lamented the low level of sales during this Sallah.
She said a carton of Malt containing 24 cans currently sells foe N11,000 as against N6,500 while a pack of Chi Exotic juice now sells at at N12,000 from N5,850
On the other hand, pack 12 cans of Coca-Cola now sells at N3,400 from N2,100.
For food stuffs, she said a bag of long grain rice currently sells at N85,000, 10kg Semovita now goes for N13,000 from N7,000.
At the popular Kara ram market in Ogun State, most of the ram sellers complained about low sales occasioned by low purchasing power of Nigerians
They lamented that the high cost of transporting the rams from the North to South has negatively impacted on their profit margin.
They said the high cost of diesel which is now over N1,200 per litre was responsible for the high cost of ram.
A major ram dealer at the market, Alhaji Abubakar Aliyu, said the cheapest ram at the market sells between N380,000 to N400,000.
The situation was not different at the Ashade ram market as most buyers lamented the high cost rams.
The NBS said the rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of semovita, oat flake, yam flour prepackage, garri, bean, etc (which are under bread and cereals class), Irish potatoes, yam, water yam, etc (under potatoes, yam and other tubers class), palm oil, vegetable oil, etc (under oil and fat), stockfish, mudfish, crayfish, etc (under fish class), beef head, chicken-live, pork head, bush meat, etc (under meat class).
According to the bureau, the month-on-month food inflation rate in May 2024 was 2.28 per cent, which shows a decrease of 0.22 percentage points compared to the rate recorded in April 2024 (2.50 per cent).
“The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending May 2024 over the previous twelve-month average was 34.06 per cent, which was 10.41 per cent points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in May 2023 (23.65 per cent),” the report said.
