Business

Rising Cost Of Tomato: Households Adopt Weird Alternatives To Make Stew

Published

1 year ago

June 24, 2024

Editor

Nigerians are coming to terms with the rising cost of living, as everyday spews out new problems deserving a survival strategy.

One of such problems is the high price of tomato, pepper and onion.

These combos can’t be exempted from 80 per cent of Nigerian delicacies.

But now, it is no longer new that a N1,000 tomato consisting of five medium-sized pieces can not prepare a full pot of sauce for a household of three people for a week.

Vanguard found that many women have been struggling with various methods to complement rice, yam and other delicacies that are not complete without stew.

For Mrs. Gladys Maxwell, a tailor, she made use of N1,000 cucumber to complement her yam and rice sauce, after watching a presentation of such online.

“I have tried using cucumber to prepare sauce, just like tomato.
“I saw the demonstration on-line and followed the steps.

“I added fresh pepper and used palm oil to make it red in colour.

“It was good. My pot was full. Imagine replacing tomato sauce with cucumber mix.

“Cucumber is also vegetable.
“I had to tell a friend to adopt the strategy.

“I made my family to finish the meal before I revealed the combination that made the sauce on their rice. They were surprised.

“It’s good we try new things to survive in this country, because I doubt the price of tomato and peppers will come down soon.”

Mrs. Hannah Mayowa, a Point of Sale, PoS, agent, said she tried replacing tomato sauce with cabbage and beetroot.

“I was with a friend a few weeks ago. I complained bitterly about how I struggle to manage money to prepare tomato sauce weekly for my family.

“You know that many families in Nigeria, especially Lagos State, have this tradition of preparing rice and tomato sauce every Sunday.

“My family happened to fall into such a category.

“My friend told me to try cucumber or cabbage and beetroot stew.

“She sent the videos to me and I decided to do that of carrot and beetroot.

“After boiling and blending them, the outcome was like the sachet tomato paste we buy in the market.

“I was shocked and at the same time happy that I found a solution to my worries with just N2,000.

“I have tried using carrot but the taste I don’t like and it makes my last child visit the toilet a lot.

“I pray the price of tomato drops. There is nothing like it when preparing sauce.”

Mrs. Modupeoluwa Adebowale, a trader, said she had a taste of cucumber sauce and doesn’t like it.

She added: “I decided to use our old solution which was the use of dried habanero pepper. I soaked it till it softened and blended it with enough onion to fine-tune its taste. Then I add sachet tomato paste. My sauce is ready.

“The habanero pepper is known to thicken sauce.”

However, the replacement of tomatoes using other alternatives for preparing sauce has affected tomato sellers and grinders in the market.

Mrs. Rahimot Mojeed, a fresh tomato seller, said: “Since the price of tomato and pepper increased, sales have dropped.

“Before, when there was a drop in supply of tomatoes due to the out of season effect, people still managed to buy.

“But now, there is nothing like that. I heard people now use cucumber, carrot and cabbage to prepare sauce the most. Some even use “ata gbigbe” meaning dry habanero pepper and sachet tomato paste to prepare stew for rice.

“I now buy tomatoes in little quantities because it is a perishable good and it’s now expensive. When it softens, it will result in a huge loss for me as there’s less patronage.”

Miss Patience Oboh, a pepper grinder said she patronized the market asking those buying tomatoes to allow her to blend it for a N200 fee.

“In a day, I have up to 20 people who I blend tomatoes for.

“Since the price of tomatoes increased, I hardly get 10 customers.

“I now have to roam the market searching for those who are interested in blending their tomatoes of which many decline saying,

“I will use my blender at home. The way tomatoes are expensive now, I can’t allow your machine to consume half of it all in the name of blending.”

“It is a phase. I believe it will pass.”

SOURCE: VANGUARD

Business

Okonjo-Iweala Reveals How Nigeria Can Dominate AfCFTA

Published

20 hours ago

September 23, 2025

Editor

The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, says Nigeria has what it takes to lead Africa’s new era of trade if it tackles high logistics costs, develops efficient payment systems, and invests in value addition.

Okonjo-Iweala, who was speaking on the sidelines of the WTO Public Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, said Nigeria and other African economies must speed up the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, and build stronger infrastructure to unlock billions of dollars in opportunities in manufacturing, services, and digital trade.

“The AfCFTA is a great step, but Africa trades only about 15–20 percent within itself — far below the European Union, EU’s 60 percent. We (Nigeria) need to speed up implementation so Africans trade more with each other.

“Take Lesotho: it exports around $200 million worth of textiles (jeans, etc.) to the U.S. — about 10 percent of its GDP — while Africa imports $7 billion of similar goods. Why not absorb Lesotho’s products within Africa? To unlock intra-African trade, we (Nigeria) need efficient payment systems (Afreximbank and others are working on this), better infrastructure and lower trade costs. It shouldn’t take longer to ship goods from Cape Town to Lagos than from China to Lagos.

“With critical minerals, energy, and new supply chains, plus opportunities in services and digital trade, there’s huge potential — if we invest in connectivity and implementation,” she said.

The former Nigeria’s Minister of Finance also cautioned that negative narratives about global commerce risk overshadowing recent successes achieved through multilateral cooperation.

Business

French Media Giant Canal+ Takes Over S.Africa’s Multichoice

Published

2 days ago

September 22, 2025

Editor

French media giant Canal+ said Monday it had taken effective control of South African television and streaming company MultiChoice, creating a group present in nearly 70 countries in Africa, Europe and Asia.

The companies said in a joint statement that the combined group will have a workforce of 17,000 employees and serve more than 40 million subscribers.

The acquisition is “the largest transaction ever undertaken” by Canal+, the statement said.

Canal+, which is already the sector’s leader in French-speaking African countries, now controls what it described as the leader in the continent’s English- and Portuguese-speaking regions.

“This acquisition allows us to strengthen our position as a leader in Africa, one of the most dynamic pay-TV markets in the world,” Canal+ chief executive Maxime Saada said in the statement.

The buyout was given a final green light by South Africa’s competition authority in late July, more than a year after Canal+ launched its bid.

Canal+ offered 125 rand ($7.2) per share for MultiChoice when it launched its offer last year, valuing the South African firm at around $3.0 billion.

Canal+ is present in 25 African countries through 16 subsidiaries and has eight million subscribers.

MultiChoice operates in 50 countries across sub-Saharan Africa and has 14.5 million subscribers.

It includes Africa’s premier sports broadcaster, SuperSport, and the DStv satellite television service.

AFP

Business

BREAKING: Nigeria’s GDP Grows By 4.23% In Q2 2025 – NBS

Published

2 days ago

September 22, 2025

Editor

Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product grew by 4.23 per cent (year-on-year) in the second quarter of 2025, the National Bureau of Statistics revealed in its Q2 2025 GDP Report.

According to the report released on Monday on its website, the figure shows a significant improvement compared to 3.48 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2024 and the 3.13 per cent recorded in Q1 2025.

The figures signal a strengthening economy, driven by recent rebasing, rebound in oil production and a resilient non-oil sector.

The report said, “Following the rebasing of the Gross Domestic Product using 2019 as the base year, previous quarterly GDP estimates were benchmarked to the rebased annual estimates to align the old series with the new rebased estimates

“This procedure provided a new quarterly GDP series, which is compared to the 2025 second quarter estimates. Gross Domestic Product grew by 4.23% (year-on-year) in real terms in the second quarter of 2025.

“This growth rate is higher than the 3.48 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2024. During the quarter under review, agriculture grew by 2.82%, an improvement from the 2.60% recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2024.

According to NBS, “The growth of the industry sector stood at 7.45% from 3.72% recorded in the second quarter of 2024, while the Services sector recorded a growth of 3.94% from 3.83% in the same quarter of 2024.”

The report said in terms of share of the GDP, “the Industry sector contributed more to the aggregate GDP in the second quarter of 2025 at 17.31% compared to the corresponding quarter of 2024 at 16.79%.”

It added, “In the quarter under review, aggregate GDP at basic price stood at N100,730,501.10 million in nominal terms. This performance is higher when compared to the second quarter of 2024, which recorded an aggregate GDP of N84,484,878.46 million, indicating a year-on-year nominal growth of 19.23%.”

Details later…