In a bid to alleviate economic hardships, traders at the Singer Market in Kano have committed to reduce and stabilize the prices of essential commodities across the state.
Chairman of the Traders Association, Ibrahim Danyaro, made this announcement during a press briefing on Monday in Kano. This declaration comes following a meeting between Danyaro and the Chairman of the Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC), Muhuyi Magaji Rimin-Gado.
The PCACC recently took action by uncovering and sealing 10 warehouses suspected of hoarding various food items at both the Dawanau International Grains Market and the Singer Market.
Danyaro expressed the traders’ commitment, stating, “We are fully aligned with the commission and will collaborate closely to enforce price controls, thereby alleviating the financial burden on the people of Kano and beyond.”
“We don’t increase prices of foodstuffs like rice, sugar, milk and others.”
According to him, dealers at the market are selling goods at lesser prices than companies, assuring that they would try to maintain the current price from now till Ramadan and beyond.
He explained that commodity dealers at Singer Market were not hoarding goods at the expense of consumers, saying that their goods at stores were always open for sale to customers.
“We are pleased to inform you that following the recent operation by the anti-graft commission, we have come with invoices and other documents to prove to the commission that we are not in any way engaged in the hoarding of commodities at the Singer Market.
“We have proved beyond reasonable doubt that we don’t engage in such, our problem is from the producers of the goods. They are the ones increasing the prices unconditionally. What we buy today is not what we will buy tomorrow.
“We have reached an agreement with the commission, that we are not going to increase the prices of goods even as we sell below the company prices. We want Gov. Yusuf to address this issue by meeting with the producers, to get to the root of the consistent increase in prices,” said Danyaro.
Earlier, Mr Rimin-Gado reassured that the commission would go after hoarders and would not relent in its efforts.
He explained that the commodities they found hoarded at the sealed warehouses did not belong to the businessmen of Singer Market.
“They have promised to cooperate with the commission in ensuring that prices of goods are maintained or even reduced and would not rise any more.
“We are going to work with them to ensure that if the prices stabilise, we would make efforts to further reduce them, for the good of the people of Kano,” he said.
NAN
