MANY residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have been experiencing difficulty accessing Federal Government’s 50 kilogramme 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, said hundreds of residents were seen waiting to be attended to.
The people, who crowded in front of the office complex, said they had been coming since on Monday when the process began, without success.
Some of them stated that they got information about the process and came to make payment, but had been on it without success, claiming that they got to the office as early as 6 a.m. to have their names recorded in a list, a process they said was cumbersome.
Recall that the Federal Government launched the sale of 30,000 metric tons of milled rice at a subsidised price of ₦40,000 per 50 kilogramme bag, with the NAIC office serves as a payment centre, 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 frustrating, as many people found it difficult to gain entrance, with only a few allowed in, at long intervals.
A civil servant, Emmanuel Oshodi, said he came to the payment centre on Tuesday, September 17, but was told that they were attending to only journalists, adding: “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.”
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; hence 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 lamented.
Mr. Ebenezer Ayiri suggested that the process should be simplified since they were using the National Identification Number (NIN) for verification and payment, noting: “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.
For Mr. Uche Joseph, he was leaving the place out of frustration after wasting two days without success, adding: “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,”
An official who claimed to be 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.
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.
