By Folasade Akpan
MANY residents of the Federal Capital Territory have been experiencing difficulty accessing federal government’s 50Kg bag of rice at N40,000.
A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent, who visited the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) headquarters, a payment centre, revealed that hundreds of residents were seen waiting to be attended to.
The people who crowded in front of the office complex, said they have been coming since on Monday when the process began, without making headway.
Some of them said they got information about the process and came to make payment, but have been on it without success.
Many of the residents also claimed that they got to the office as early as 6 a.m. to have their names recorded in a list, but the process was cumbersome.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Federal Government launched the sale of 30,000 metric tons of milled rice at a subsidised price of ₦40,000 per 50kg bag.
NAIC office serves as a payment center, after which successful applicants would be given a receipt to go and pick up the bag of rice at another location at Central Area.
However, making payment has been very difficult as many people found it difficult to gain entrance, with only a few allowed in, at long intervals.
Mr Emmanuel Oshodi, a civil servant said that he came to the payment centre on Tuesday but was told that they were attending to only journalists.
“Even the journalists I met here said they were not being attended to, because the officials claimed they attended to all journalists on Monday.
“Mind you, Monday was a public holiday, when many people will not know the office would be opened,’’ he said.
Mrs Deborah Alexis, said that she was at the centre on Tuesday, but after waiting for a long time, the officials said the server was down and they couldn’t attend to her.
“There has been a backlog since Monday, so, when will they attend to the hundreds of people waiting here, or is this how we are going to continue suffering just for a bag of rice that we will still pay for?,’’ she retorted.
Mr Ebenezer Ayiri said that the process should be simplified since they were using the National Identification Number (NIN) for verification and payment.
“The process is stressful and unnecessarily delayed, so, the payment process should be simplified by creating more payment centres.
“I think payment should be done online. After all, we have different payment platforms that could be deployed to make things easier for people,” Ayiri said.
Mr Uche Joseph said he was leaving the place out of frustration after wasting two days without success.
“I don’t think it is worthwhile, wasting my time here because of a bag of rice. I really don’t understand why Nigerians should be subjected to this harrowing experience.
The government should design an easier method of access to the commodity, if they are really serious about ameliorating people’s suffering,’’
NAN reports that an official who claimed he was from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) threatened to shut down the exercise, when he was denied access to the building.
None of NAIC’s official was, however, available for comment about the situation.
NAN reports that the subsidised rice is part of ongoing intervention by the federal government to ameliorate economic hardship.
The initiative which commenced in Abuja, is aimed towards contributing to broader efforts at enhancing food security. (NAN)
