Akwa Ibom state government is set to engage registered vendors to set up redemption centres where poor citizens, availed food vouchers, could purchase basic foods items at government discounted rates.
Governor Umo Eno making the revelation in Uyo, Monday, March 4, 2024, explained that the intended modalities aims at checking middlemen buying staple food, hoarding it to resell at cutthroat prices.
Addressing the hardship posed by soaring food prices, the Governor at the All Nations Christian Ministry March First Sunday Service, said, “We want this food to get to the real people. If not properly managed, people would buy it, hoard and resell at a higher price again to the masses.
“We know that as we are planning, some people are also planning how they will make money out of it. So that is the problem and reason why many government programmes don’t succeed some times.
“One of the things we believe we can do, is to use the social register. So if you don’t have your name in the social register in your place, please go and do it.
“We may introduce a food voucher, and we are going to have redemption centres all across this State, all across the market. So you get the food voucher, take it to the redemption centres where you will get the foodstuffs.
“Those managing the centres will bring the vouchers back to us and then get their balance with some logistics and profit.
“For those thinking of forging vouchers, we are doing security printing, to keep out fake vouchers. For those working to sabotage the process, we will pick them up and hand them over to the police. Every shop will have a way of verifying the vouchers, so don’t think about it” Governor Eno warned.
He assured that the Ministry of Agriculture would make farm inputs available for cultivation and also would be ready to offtake from farmers willing to sell surplus harvest.
