Why Jollof rice may have low patronage during Christmas celebration

As Nigerians wait for the 2019 Christmas in few days, it appears cooking ‘Jollof rice,’ the usual meal that comes with the celebration, may not be an option for most Nigerians, Businessday gathers.

Jollof rice, a Nigerian delicacy, is usually a preferred meal for both common and well-to-do Nigerians to mark celebrations, especially Christmas. However, the popular African dish is likely to have low patronage as many are already opting for other meals such as spaghetti, pounded yam, semovita and other meals to mark the celebration.

Here is why: Many Nigerians have bitterly lamented over the poorly-made local rice, which the sudden border closure has pushed them to go for. The local rice, many have said, is not good enough to prepare Jollof compared to the foreign rice.

Businessday earlier reported how most caterers in Nigeria complain about the poor quality of the local (Nigerian) rice as it fails to properly prepare the country’s popular delicacy known as Jollof rice and meeting the expectations of their consumers.

“People don’t like to eat the Jollof rice prepared from the local one at parties because it is sticky, has a lot of starch and stones. I had to stop using it and stick to the foreign one. Jollof prepared with foreign rice is not mushy and gummy,” Nneke Obi, a Lagos-based caterer said.

“Although, when you prepare Jollof with local rice, the ingredients catch fast and is sweeter than the foreign rice, I still prefer to cook with the foreign one because that is what my customers want,” Obi said.

Moreover, since the closure of the Nigerian land border in August, prices of major ingredients of Jollof such as groundnut oil, turkey or chicken have skyrocketed. This, among other factors, has contributed to low patronage of Jollof rice all over the country.

According to Vincent Chukwu, a medical doctor, eating Jollof rice has always been a tradition every Christmas, but with the high price in foreign rice, his family will settle for pounded yam.

Before the border closure, a bag of foreign rice cost between N14,500 and N15,000, while a bag of locally produced rice cost about N13,500. Meanwhile, the cost of foreign rice has gone really inflated following the border closure. This, Businessday gathers, has extremely lowered patronage of the foreign rice.

According to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics in November, the Consumer Price Index otherwise referred to as inflation rate rose to 11.85 percent, the highest it ever risen since May 2018, when the number showed up at 11.61 percent.

“I cannot prepare Jollof rice with local rice. My family will not like it. We will still eat Jollof rice, the only difference is that I will not give my neighbours this year,” Bukky Abiodun, a trader in Lagos, said.

According to the 2019 Jollof Index by SBM Intelligence, Nigeria’s leading geopolitical intelligence platform, Nigerians are now spending 60 percent more for a family pot of the Jollof than they did three years ago.

The SBM Jollof Index is a composite index that tracks how much it will cost to make a pot of Jollof rice across 12 markets in seven states in the six geopolitical zones, for a family of five or six, the average rural and urban family size in Nigeria.

According to Ayorinde Akinloye, a consumer goods analyst at Lagos-based CSL Stockbrokers, Christmas will definitely be worse as many rice sellers are currently hoarding foreign rice with plans to hike the price significantly in December, and this is bound to impact cost of Jollof rice.

“I think people will opt for other substitutes like spaghetti and local ball foods like pounded yam, and may be other options for consumers in December,” Akinloye said.