MATAN refutes FCCPC allegations The Sun Nigeria

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By Merit Ibe

The Market Traders Association of Nigeria (MATAN) has refuted the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) claim that market associations are to blame for the excessive rise in food prices in the country.

The FCCPC’s Executive Vice-President, Mr. Babatunde Irukera, had threatened to sue market associations that formed themselves into illegal cartels to orchestrate the manipulation of food prices.

Irukera launched the threat at the multi-stakeholder workshop on fair food prices in Nigeria, organized by the FCCPC in collaboration with Consumer International.

He said: It is the associations, whether in fertilizer input supplies or the market traders association that form cartels that drive up food prices.

Reacting in a letter from MATAN’s principal consultant, Burke-Frazier Consulting Firm Ltd, Managing Director, Ayo Abiola, noted that the company had been given a mandate by MATAN to immediately correct the assumptions of the FCCPC which were laying all the blame for the misfortunes of escalating food prices in Nigeria on the members of the association.

The letter titled: We are not responsible for rising food prices in Nigeria, the traders association noted that although

not absolving the bad eggs of the association for unhealthy prices, the national secretary of the association who is also the president of the implementation of the project

The Steering Committee of the Market Traders Integrated Revenue Management System, Ambassador (Dr) Olakunle Moses Johnson again pointed out without prejudice that multiple taxation and extortion at food gateways (ports), federal and local roads to traditional markets and unchecked activities of illegal tax collectors with still

to refute claims of government support around the markets are the economic and social threat that lurks behind other known reasons for soaring food prices in Nigeria, if the spade was called a spade and not an agricultural work tool.

It is, however, fortunate that MATAN now has the listening ears of the Federal Government through its various departments and agencies, including the Federal Revenue Service and the Joint Tax Commission, which have responded resolutely with responses that would resolve the issue. We are confident that the new government of President Bola Tinubu is positively in tune with the clarion call of traders over the years on multiple taxation and extortion by his new administration’s recent moves to this effect.

Bisi williams, national PRO, steering committee of the implementation of MATAN VAT Direct Initiative (VDI), pointed out that cartels have their advantages and normality in business to protect and ensure fair transactions for their members.

Williams said it is an aberration to blame Matan for rising food prices in Nigeria.

As traders, it’s what you buy that you sell. There are indices or parameters that influence the cost of the price of goods and services. It is dynamic and universal.

He noted that the removal of fuel subsidy and the equality of the exchange rate are the parameters that have caused the price increase lately, adding that the high cost was there but lately it is beyond the reach of the masses.

Regarding the removal of the fuel subsidy, the perspective was that once removed, market forces would apply and drive prices down.

Certain factors were supposed to have been taken into consideration before the removal.

The removal resulted in a geometric progression in the cost of living.

Traders should not be blamed, this is government policy somersault. He called on the government to put in place a proactive system to help alleviate the suffering of Nigerians.

Speaking from the Lagos office in Egbeda, the sanity still seen in traditional and open markets is the product of cartels that have placed checks on members’ activities.

According to him, Nigeria is a member of OPEC, an international cartel of oil exporting countries.

We at Burke-Frazier are also of the view that many intervening variables are overlooked in the problem of rising food prices in Nigeria, despite the awareness of the hash realities currently being experienced in the process of economic structures.

deconstruction to rebuild the economy by the new administration of President Tinubu.

What we have accounted for in runaway food price inflation is a consequence of insecurity in Nigeria’s food belt. Farmers still do not have full confidence in large-scale agriculture capable of diluting the effects of profiteering cartels, as the FCCPC claims, because the majority of farmers have been killed, displaced from their

agricultural land or because of their disabilities caused by the attacks on them in their farms and villages.

Most agricultural inputs, such as seedlings, yield enhancers and engineering work tools are imported products directly influenced by

exchange. Most of the produce in Nigerian markets are foreign agricultural produce from neighboring countries at an incredible level of raw tomatoes, coconuts, pepper and others that have to go through unhealthy circuits for human consumption, why are they highly exposed to unhealthy taxation and

extortion on the roads to markets.

What we have today is a side effect of savage monsters that only the feds could tame.

We recommend, however, that the new government of President Tinubu move forward with economic reconstruction reforms. The new Committee on Taxation should pay particular attention to the details of taxes in our ports, in state and local governments.

The government must pay attention to the contribution structures collected by the

different associations because the effects would ultimately be passed on to consumers.

The federal government must enforce the laws and the assertions of the executive and not pretend to listen to the comments of the people it is supposed to protect and not the few pockets that damage the reputation of the government and its good policies because the perpetrators are not smart. The economies of economic deconstruction

should go into agricultural production and the non-energy transport of people: these are the immediate areas where the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu could make the quick wins capable of easing the tension in the country.

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