Only people with NIN can buy 50kg rice at N40,000 –FG

As the Federal Government (FG) commences sale of 30,000 metric tonnes of milled rice to Nigerians at subsidized rate of N40,000 for 50kg bag, it has announced that only buyers with National Identification Numbers (NIN) would benefit from the package.

President Bola Tinubu, who was represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, gave the announcement during the flag-off ceremony on Thursday.

He insisted that the lifeline rice would be sold strictly on a “one person, one bag” basis.

Kyari explaineed that the intervention was a part of the Federal Government’s effort to alleviate the ongoing food crisis in the country.

“This food intervention can be said to be timely considering the times and challenges we are in as citizens of this great nation,” he said.

“As one of the numerous efforts of the present administration to cushion the effects 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 vulnerable and the 30,000MT of milled rice which is being flagged-off for sales to Nigerians today September 5, 2024,” he stated.

Kyari explained that a multi-disciplinary government task force had been deployed to ensure transparency, broad distribution and the overall success of the initiative.

According to him, the process was designed to ensure that no individual buys more than one bag.

He added that beneficiaries would be verified through identification methods such as the NIN and phone numbers to prevent fraudulent individuals from accessing multiple bags at the expense of other people.

“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.

On the process Nigerians would have to follow to buy the rice, the Director of Strategic Grains Reserve, Ministry of Agriculture, Haruna Sule, explained that civil servants could access the grains at designated points 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.

Sule explained that once the buyer provides the code number, a treasury receipt would be issued as an evidence of payment to the government.

He added that the buyer would then receive a receipt indicating the collection point and time.

Sule explained that the collection point was different 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.

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