Rabiu spoke to journalists after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu on Thursday at the presidential villa, Abuja.

He said Tinubu’s duty waiver policy on essential food imports, introduced last year, helped bring down prices.

“Food prices are coming down in Nigeria and we’re doing quite a lot to support that effort,” the industrialist said.

“You will recall that His Excellency granted duty waiver last year for certain food items like brown rice, maize, wheat and sorghum to be imported into the country.”

“At the time, food prices were very high; the price of rice last year was about N100,000 per 50 kilogramme (kg) bag, and the price of wheat or flour was about N80,000 per bag, maize was about N60,000 per 50 kg bag and pasta about N20,000 per carton.”

Rabiu said hoarders used to buy up commodities like paddy rice during harvest season and hold them for months to force up prices, but waiver policy frustrated those hoarding food, leaving them with unsold stock.

“The moment the season finishes, then the price will double. That has always been the problem. And that does not really affect the farmer in any way because the farmer is getting his N400,000 to N500,000 per tonne of paddy. But the people that are buying and hoarding for three to four months, once the season finishes, it goes back up to N800,000,” the chairman said.

“A lot of those hoarders are actually crying now and losing money. It is important to protect our farmers, but at the same time, we also have 250 million Nigerians that are paying a lot more than what they should be paying, because of what few companies or individuals are doing” he said.

‘BUA HAS IMPORTED ENOUGH RICE TILL YEAR-END’

Rabiu said the Rice Millers Association banned hoarding, and BUA Foods, having imported enough rice till year-end, would crash prices for anyone attempting to hoard or hike prices.

“So, I am hopeful that at the end of the day, the price of rice, going forward, will not go any higher than what it is today. I’m sure as soon as the season starts, the farmers will get the price they’ve always gotten, and the price of rice is going to stay the same, because people will be wary of hoarding, because if they hoard, they will lose money,” he said.

The billionaire expressed excitement that food prices are decreasing, noting the public’s previous outcry when prices were high, and vowed that prices would continue to fall.

Meanwhile, Rabiu attributed the high cost of cement to naira devaluation, noting that the price in dollars is competitive globally.

“One dollar is N1,600. Cement price today, even if you take it at N9,000 per bag, or 20 bags, which is one tonne, we are looking at N180,000 per tonne,” he said.

“N180,000 is $110, maybe $120 per tonne. There’s nowhere in Africa, or anywhere, that you can get the price of cement much lower than 120 dollars. So, the issue is devaluation of the naira.

“The devaluation happened two years ago, and it was necessary, we needed to do that. And the price of cement at N9,000 is not high, because it’s about $110, $120. Well, N10,000 may be the retail price.

“We are paying at one of my factories, the Obu plant, N15 billion every month for the gas that we consume. Two, three years ago, we were paying N5 billion. So, it’s like three times. Our spares, our experts, mining costs and all of that, are paid in dollars.

“What we have done, though, because I raised that with Mr President, is that we have decided; Alhaji Aliko Dangote of Dangote Cement approached me and I concurred with him, that we should do everything to support Mr President’s Renewed Hope agenda.

“And we have decided that we are going to freeze the price of cement to anybody that is involved, or for any contractor that is involved with the Renewed Hope projects. What it means is that any company or anybody that is doing a project under the Renewed Hope, the price of cement will be frozen. There will be no increase for the foreseeable future.”

Rabiu said a letter will be submitted to the ministry next week to that effect, commending Dave Umahi, minister of works’, initiative to build durable and cost-effective concrete roads.