Many Nigerians have been disillusioned by the sudden spike in the price of liquified natural gas (LGP), otherwise known as cooking gas.
The commodity’s price has hit 70%, leaving many Nigerians disappointed and reverting to primitive cooking methods.
Experts have advocated LPG as a cleaner alternative to cooking. Still, the recent hike in the price of the commodity has caused many to abandon cooking gas for cheaper methods such as charcoal and firewood.
Recent data by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that the 12.5kg refill price increased by 69.15% to N15,552.56 in August, from N9.194 in the same period in July.
An X user, Abiodun Adeleke, said the price jump feels like a stab, considering Nigerians’ hardships.
He said:
Also, small businesses are feeling the heat of the increase, especially caterers and food vendors who rely on the commodity for their operations.
Despite removing value-added tax (VAT) from the commodity in October last year, the prices have continued to soar.
BusinessDay reports that forex volatility has caused a spike in the LNG price as importers find it hard to access funds for the product’s import.
The president of the Nigerian Association of Liquified Petroleum Gas Marketers, Olatubosun Oladapo, said rising prices, high taxes and vessel prices, forex scarcity, and the naira devaluation affect the commodity’s price.
According to reports, Nigeria has about 209 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves but cannot explore it due to low investment.
Monthly, the price of cooking gas rose by 7.62% from N5.874.55 recorded in July 2024 to N6,430 in August 2024.
The NBS report said Benue and Sokoto experienced the highest average price for refilling a 5kg cooking gas at N7,000, followed by Rivers at N6,954.55 and Borno states at N6,914.29.
Taraba recorded the lowest price of cooking gas at N5,600.67, followed by Abuja and Kogi at N5,825 and N5,857.56, respectively.
In addition, the breakdown by zone showed that the South East recorded the highest average retail price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of cooking gas, followed by the South-South, with N6,451.34, while the North-Central recorded the lowest N6,344.29.
Additionally, the average retail price for refilling a 12.5kg cooking gas cylinder rose by 9.05% monthly from N14,261.57 in July 2024 to N15,552 in August 2024. Yearly, the price rose by 69% from N9,194.41 in August 2023.
TimesNow.com.ng earlier reported that Nigerians were facing severe hardship, and one key factor was the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), commonly known as cooking gas.
The National Bureau of Statistics’s most recent price watch report revealed that the average price for refilling a 5kg cooking gas cylinder in June was N7,418.45.
Meanwhile, refilling a 12.5kg cooking gas cost an average of N15,627.40, a significant increase from the N9,123.25 it was sold for in June 2023.
