Several residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), on Sunday, decried the continuous increase in the price of cooking gas, saying it has gone beyond the reach of the average family.
The latest reports of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the average price of 5kg of cooking gas increased from N4,115.32 recorded in August 2023 to N4,189.96 in September 2023.
The average retail price for 12.5 kg of cooking gas increased by 0.35 per cent from N9,162.11 in July 2023 to N9,194.41 in August 2023.
The average price of cooking gas declined in April, May, and June, with 5kg selling for N4,642.27, N4,360.69, and N4,068.26, respectively. However, in July, cooking gas resumed a steady increase.
A public servant, Ms Beatrice Onifade, said she bought 12.5 kg of cooking gas on November 2 at the price of N12,500.
Ms Onifade, while lamenting the increasing cost of cooking gas, said she had to caution everyone in her house to manage their gas usage.
Onifade, however, said she sometimes uses charcoal as an alternative source for cooking because she has a large family, and using gas alone is not sustainable.
A civil servant, Debisi Ajayi, said she bought 12.5kg at N11,570 on October 29, up from the N9,000 she bought in July.
“Everyone was happy when the price of cooking gas came down some months ago, but before we knew it, it increased,” Ms Ajayi said.
On how she is coping, Ms Ajayi said she is able to manage her gas usage by using electricity to boil water.
She said the economic situation in the country has become unbearable with the prices of everything going up daily, adding that spending so much on just cooking gas is not sustainable for her.
A businesswoman, Doyin Adewunmi, said she bought 50kg of cooking gas at N56,000 in the middle of September.
Ms Adewumi said the increase in dollars and insecurity in the country are contributory factors to the continuous increase in the prices of commodities.
She said the environment she lives in could not allow her to use an alternative cooking source like charcoal, and she called on the government to immediately address the hike in prices.
Another civil servant, Fatima Lawal, said she bought 12 kg of cooking gas at N850 per kg on October 25, and she decried the increasing cost.
“The gas does not even last up to three weeks, so how can anyone cope with other demands of the household?,” she lamented.
“The government needs to help Nigerians; the suffering is just too much.”
An economist, Ayo Anthony, attributed the increasing price of cooking gas to two variables: a shortage of supply and the exchange rate.
Anthony said the demand for cooking gas elasticity is very high because it is an essential commodity.
“The other time when the prices came down, I guess it was the supply that overturned the demand.
“But now that it seems the demands are overshooting the supply, maybe there is a disruption in the supply chain of cooking gas.
“From what I learnt, this cooking gas is not all domestically produced in Nigeria. Some are also imported and the nature of the exchange rate is also a factor,” said Anthony.
– NAN