By John Ikani
The average price for the refilling of a five kilogram (5kg) cylinder for Liquefied Petroleum Gas otherwise known as Cooking Gas increased to N2,627.94 in October from N2,397.60 in September and N1,953.71 in October 2020.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said this in its “Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Cooking Gas) Price Watch (October 2021)’’ obtained from its website on Wednesday.
It said that the increase was by 9.61 per cent month-on-month and by 34.51 per cent year-on-year.
According to it, states with the highest average price for refilling a 5kg cylinder for cooking gas are Abuja, whose residents bought the product at N3,450, Anambra N3,275 and Zamfara N3,200, respectively.
It listed states with the lowest average price for the refilling of a 5kg cylinder as Delta whose residents paid N1,987.75, Lagos N2,004.55 and Abia N2,040.45.
“Similarly, the average price for the refilling of a 12.5kg cylinder increased by 7.68 per cent month-on-month and by 62.76 per cent year-on-year to N6,638.27 in October from N6,164.97 in September and N4,078.65 in October 2020.
“States with the highest average price for the refilling of a 12.5kg cylinder were Oyo N7,718.23, Abuja N7,660 and Imo N7,655.56.
“States with the lowest average price for the refilling of a 12.5kg were Borno N5,133.33, Nassarawa N5,764 and Niger, N6,000.
Fall back on cheaper alternatives
As a result of the unbridled increase in the price of cooking gas, Nigerians have begun reverting to charcoal, firewood Thisday reports.
Mrs Salamat Adeyemi, a local food vendor in Abeokuta, lamented that the high cost of gas had forced her to go back to the use of charcoal and firewood.
According to Mrs Adeyemi, the high cost of cooking has increased her cost of production and her customers always complain if she passes the cost on to the quantity and quality of her food.
However, the woman lamented that using firewood and charcoal was already having effects on her health because of the carbon she was breathing in every day.
She said, “I am now fixed because of the situation. Should I continue to save costs by using firewood and charcoal at the cost of my health? Well I am still managing myself but it is not easy.”
Mrs Adeyemi therefore, called on the federal government to look into the issue of cooking gas, which an average household must use.
For Mrs Uche Obiageli, who reside in Enugu in South East, the high cost of cooking gas has begun to take a toll on the family budget on feeding.
According to Mrs Obiageli, buying a 12.5 kg gas at almost N9,000 is killing and already causing hardship as her husband had insisted that she must start using charcoal alternately.
“What I now do is that I use gas in the morning to prepare food for the children in the morning to go to school. In the evening, it is charcoal that I now use. Even at that, the price of charcoal has also risen.”
