Tinubu Govt Begins Sale Of 50KG Rice To Nigerians At ₦40,000 (See How To Buy Yours)

Verification of buyers 

Kyari said that a multi-disciplinary machinery of government had been deployed to ensure the transparency, wider reach, and success of the exercise.

• According to him, the process is structured to ensure that one person does not get more than one 50kg bag of rice.

• He said that intending beneficiaries would be “verified using relevant identification mediums such as the NIN and phone numbers to forestall multiple accesses to the commodity by fraudulent individuals at the detriment of other citizens.”

“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. 

Process of purchase 

Highlighting the process Nigerians would have to follow to purchase the rice, the Director of Strategic Grains Reserve, Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Haruna Sule, said civil servants could access the grains from the point of sale with their Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

“Once you have any of these three, you present it to the sales operators and it is logged on the platform that has been created. 

“After this, you proceed to pay electronically with your ATM; once the payment is done, it is linked to the initial sales operator and it shows that you have paid; then a receipt will be issued with a code number,” he explained. 

• With the code number, he said the buyer will be issued with a treasury receipt to show that he or she has paid to government.

• The buyer is then given a receipt which shows point of collection and time of collection; this is to eliminate any form of stampede.

• He noted that the point of collection is different from the point of sales, adding that  “when you get to the collection point, you present your code to our officials and you will be given a bag of rice.”

• In Abuja, he said the plan is to set up about five to six sales points across the FCT and the duration of the distribution will be for the period they are able to finish sales.

What you should know 

The sale of subsidised rice was first announced by the Minister of Information, Idris Mohammed, in July. Following the announcement, the Ministry of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs Human Resources Management Department asked civil servants to register for the sale of the food item.

The government thereafter announced that it had halted the plan without any explanation about the reason.