FIJ
The cost of cooking gas in Nigeria has risen to its current price of N6,699 per 5 kilogrammes from N4,360 in May 2023, when President Bola Tinubu was inaugurated. Some Nigerians have turned to alternatives already.
Recently published data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that cooking gas prices have risen by at least 53.65% in the last 16 months.
This is also N2,510 more than the price in September 2023.
In its September publication, the NBS revealed the lowest price of cooking gas sold anywhere in the country was N5,950 in Kebbi State, while in May 2023, the lowest price was N3,287 in Ondo State.
FIJ found that the price of cooking gas took a significant leap in October 2023 by 8.90% for 5 kg with a N373 price difference. The price continued to shoot up until it hit N6,154 in February.
By the time the president would celebrate his first anniversary in office, the cost of cooking gas had nearly doubled. It was sold at N7,418.
The NBS data further revealed that cooking gas was sold at more expensive prices in Rivers, one of Nigeria’s oil-rich states, at N7,285; Gombe at N7,271 and Borno, one of the states most ravaged by terrorism at N7,089.
In October 2023, after the prices of gas significantly leapt by 8.9%, Oladapo Olatunbosun, Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers, told the Senate that the fluctuating price of cooking gas was caused by a cabal making deliberate efforts to prevent Nigerians from accessing cooking gas.
He explained that the cabal which included NAVGas, NIPCOPLC, Matrix Energy Ltd, Prudent Energy Ltd, Shafa Energy, Techno Gas, StockGap Ltd, Mobil, and Pan Ocean Limited to name a few, would purchase the gas from the Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) at N9 million and would be bent on reselling with a profit of N16 million.
