By John Odhe, YENAGOA
The price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), popularly called cooking gas in Nigeria, has skyrocketed, jumping to record highs of N1,600 per kilogramme to over N2,000 per kilogramme in many retail locations.
This relentless surge in energy costs, recently verified by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data, has placed immense financial strain on Nigerian households and local businesses.
The primary catalyst for this hike is said to be the volatile foreign exchange (FX) market.
Because Nigeria relies heavily on imported gas and international shipping to meet domestic demands, the devaluation of the Naira has driven up landing and operational costs.
Additionally, supply chain bottlenecks, local distribution delays, and global energy market pressures continually restrict the volume of gas reaching neighborhood filling stations.
For everyday Nigerians, these price increases have translated directly to severe economic hardship.
According to the NBS, refilling a 12.5kg cylinder now requires an average of over N22,000, a figure that swallows a significant portion of the average monthly income for low-income earners.
Families are routinely forced to make agonizing, daily budget choices between putting food on the table or fueling their kitchens.
It is no difference in Bayelsa State as many residents now resort to the use of firewood for cooking which is not affordable either.
Small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) that rely on LPG, such as restaurants, bakeries, and food vendors, are also taking a severe hit.
Many business owners have been forced to either raise the prices of their goods, transferring the burden to end-users, or face collapsing profit margins.
A restaurant owner in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, Mrs. Faith Owakwe, says she is contemplating closing down the business.
Owakwe laments the refusal of customers to comply with the conditional increase in a plate of food as a result of the hike in LPG.
“The whole thing is so tiring. We are no longer meeting up due to the increase in the price of gas. Yet, customers are not ready to comply with the little increase we made to keep us afloat. I think I will leave the business for now until things get better,” Owakwe complains.
Perhaps the most alarming effect of the crisis is the mass migration of families away from clean energy and back to hazardous, environmentally degrading alternatives.
With the cost of cooking gas and even charcoal soaring, many households in semi-urban and rural areas are returning to firewood, threatening environmental sustainability and raising serious public health concerns regarding indoor air pollution.
