President Bola Tinubu has ordered a Federal Executive Council (FEC) committee to ensure the safe passage of farm produce across major transport routes, aimed at lowering logistics costs and, by extension, food prices. 

The Minister of State for Agriculture, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, disclosed this in Abuja, adding that the government will roll out a Farmer Soil Health Scheme and a cooperative sector reform to boost productivity and farmer financing.

Why “safe passage” matters

Moving food from farm to market in Nigeria is costly and risky. Checkpoints, informal levies, and poor roads push up prices that consumers pay at the stall.

Independent reporting has documented dozens of checkpoints on key corridors, about 60 between Lagos and Onitsha, where bribe seeking and delays add time and cost to each trip. These frictions are not trivial. 

The World Bank estimates that transport and trade costs can account for up to 30% of a final food price in many countries, an order of magnitude that explains why trimming logistics waste can move retail prices. 

Meanwhile, petrol prices climbed sharply after subsidy reforms, and transport costs rose 20 to 100% over roughly 22 months, feeding into traders’ margins and retail prices.

Where prices stand today

Nigeria’s headline inflation eased to 21.88% in July 2025, but food inflation, the pain point for households, stood at 22.74% year on year (and still rising month on month). That means logistics-driven relief would be welcome, but must be visible at the till to convince consumers.

Could “safe passage” actually lower prices?

For it to work, authorities need zero tolerance for road extortion and bottlenecks. Governors previously agreed to dismantle illegal checkpoints; a federal state security joint tasking under the FEC umbrella should set route by route targets (Lagos to Onitsha, Kano to Lagos, Kaduna to Abuja, Maiduguri to Jos), publish them, and audit weekly. Without that, “safe passage” risks becoming another memo.

They should also guarantee green lane corridors for food trucks with clear signage, a single verification stop, and recorded plate numbers to reduce discretionary halts. The dense checkpoint networks that raise costs and travel time must be collapsed into one controlled stop per corridor.

Next, the plan needs measurable logistics KPIs: average hours farm to market on priority corridors, average on road informal payments captured via anonymous driver reporting, and average freight cost per tonne kilometre for grains and tubers. When these fall, retail prices should follow with a lag.

Supply side levers matter too. Soil testing and tailored fertiliser advice under the soil health scheme can lift yields and reduce input waste; cooperative reform can improve aggregation and bargaining power, both pushing unit costs down over time.