In the past few months, the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) popularly known as Cooking Gas has witnessed a continual increase despite Nigeria’s huge deposit of the commodity.
The average retail price of a 5kg cylinder of cooking gas has increased over 100% in the last 12 months.
As at August 2021, cooking gas was sold at N2,250 per 5kg cylinder and now sells for N4,500 today, representing an increase of 100%.
A report from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that the average retail price for refilling a 5kg Cylinder grew by 7.57% on a month-on-month basis from N3,921.35 recorded in May 2022 to N4,218.38 in June 2022.
And on a year-on-year basis, the price of the commodity increased by 103.92% from N2,068.69 in June 2021.
Further analysis of the data revealed that prices are not uniform across the country. In Adamawa, a 5kg cylinder was refilled at N4,650.00, the highest in the country, according to the NBS report. Gombe followed with N4,566.67 and Niger came third with N4,540.
The states with the lowest average prices as of June were Zamfara with N3,700; Yobe at N3,820 and Kano at N3,875, respectively.
In addition, the North-Central recorded the highest average retail price for refilling a 5kg Cylinder of LPG (Cooking Gas) with N4,378.95, followed by the North-East with N4,301.48, while the North-West recorded the lowest with N3,994.57.
The continued surge in the price of cooking gas was not unique as prices of other deregulated petroleum products like kerosene and diesel also increased during the same period.
A local gas dealer in the Aboru area of Lagos States, Boluwatife Andero, who spoke with our correspondent, on Monday, said the price of cooking gas changes every two to three days.
He said, “The market is unpredictable. A kg of cooking gas was selling for N850 per kg as at Friday but this morning, it’s selling for N900 per kg”.
