Whenever prices rise, particularly the prices of rice, fuel, onions, chicken and other essentials, the public reaction is understandably sharp. Government equally has a responsibility to explain what it is doing to reduce the burden on citizens. But our national conversation must mature beyond the cycle of blame.
Between September 2024 and September 2025, the average price of local rice fell from NLe25 to NLe22 per kilogram, while imported rice declined more slowly. That difference is not an accident. It is the result of deliberate investment in domestic production under Feed Salone.
The lesson is simple: our greatest bailout is not a loan, a grant or a favourable exchange rate. It is our own productive capacity: the farmer in Kambia, the miller in Bo, the trader in Kenema and the young agripreneur who sees a business where others see a hardship.
This column will continue to track the numbers, because a public that understands the data is a public that can hold every institution, including this Ministry, to account.