Group decries hike in prices of cooking gas

The Liquefied Petroleum Gas Retailers (LPGAR), branch of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), on Thursday decried the increase in the prices of cooking gas across the country.

Its National Chairman, Mr. Michael Umudu, said the increment was an impediment to the Federal Government’s moves to deepen gas usage in Nigeria.

Umudu said the price of 12.5kg cooking gas had increased from about N3, 200 to about N5, 000 in some parts of the country within the last few weeks.

He said: “We as retailers are not happy with the increment because we are no longer getting patronage as we used to. Some people in semi-urban areas have switched back to firewood and kerosene stoves because they cannot afford to refill their gas cylinders.

According to him, while the government has declared Jan. 1, 2021 to Dec. 31, 3030 as the decade of gas, such declarations should be backed with proactive actions to make it successful.

“If we want the price of gas to be stable, the government can direct the Nigeria Liquefied Gas Company (NLNG) and others producing gas to allocate sufficient quota to the domestic market annually.

He added that the pricing of LPG should also be done in Naira against the current situation where the product is being sold to Nigerian marketers in dollars.

Recall that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its latest “Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Cooking Gas) Price Watch’’ publication, which was for November, had indicated a month-on-month increase in the average price for refilling a 12.5kg cylinder of the product.

It said that the average price for the refilling of a 12.5kg cylinder for the product increased by 0.11 per cent month-on-month and decreased by -0.93 per cent year-on-year to N4, 082.97 in November from N4, 078.65 in October.

“States with the highest average price for the refilling of a 12.5kg cylinder for cooking gas were Akwa Ibom at N4,587.60, Bayelsa N4,558.33 and Cross River N4,505.77.

“States with the lowest average price for the refilling of a 12.5kg cylinder were Kano N3,497, Oyo N3,553.13 and Lagos N3,682,” it said.