Lagos residents are raising concerns about continued increase in the price of beans, their major source of protein.
They said that consistent rise in the price of beans since 2024 had become unbearable, urging governments to intervene.
The residents spoke in interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos.
NAN reports that a 40kg bag of beans, which sold for N26,000 in January, now sells for N115,000, while a 100kg bag which sold for N55,000 at the beginning of the year, now sells for N230,000.
This made the staple food beyond the reach of many of the residents.
Mrs Uloma Chigozirim, a housewife and mother of four on Santos Estate, Akowonjo, expressed worry that children might be malnourished following the high increase in the price of beans.
“Beans used to be the cheapest food; now, we do not even understand what is going on.
“Every other week, the price keeps going up; even traders cannot tell us the reason for the hike.
“Beans used to be the cheapest source of protein for the average resident, but the produce is now too expensive to afford.
“We really need government intervention, else a lot of us will be malnourished,” Chigozirim said.
Hinting on the possible reason for the hike in the price of the produce, Mr Uche Ikenga, a beans farmer at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, noted that the produce was not an all-season crop.
“It has the time it is cultivated.
“The peak period for beans harvest is usually at the end of the year. Then we have enough supply for the growing demand of the produce.
“However, harvest time is the time some cattle are foraging everywhere for food.
“Last year, a lot of farmers lost their harvest because their beans farms were consumed by the foraging cows.
“The produce is scarce and expensive this year because the harvest of last year was low,” Ikenga said.
