After cleaning her teary eyes, Ngozi Martins endured another round of intense, stifling smoke emanating from cooking with firewood, the third greatest killer of women and children in Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization.
Martins, who resides in Oregun, a community close to Nigeria’s commercial capital, battles chest pain and cough. She told BusinessDay that the incessant increase in the price of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) also called cooking gas, has made life more difficult for her.
Just like Martins, the hike in the prices of cooking gas has forced many women into harmful alternatives such as using firewood and charcoal for cooking.
Before the increase, the market price of a 6kg gas cylinder was refilled for N1, 800, but it now goes for between N4, 200, and N4500.
BusinessDay’s findings also revealed that the average price of LPG across Nigeria’s 774 local governments has increased more than ten times in 2021.
The average price of cooking gas
Consumers paid an average of N7, 308.06 to refill a 12.5kg cylinder gas in November 2021, an increase of 10.09 percent from the previous month’s cost of N6, 638.27, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)
Further analysis showed LPG consumption increased by 75perent from N7, 308 in November 2021 to N4177.55 when compared to the first month of the year (January).
The average price of the product also increased by 78.99 percent year on year, from N4, 082.97 in November 2020 to N7, 308.06 in November 2021.
Concerning the average cost of refilling a 5kg, consumers’ cost increased by 26.05 percent month on month, from N2, 627.94 in October to N3,312.42 in November 2021.
Year on year, the average price of the product per 5kg increased by 70.09 percent, from N1,947.47 in the same month last year to N3,312.42 in November 2021.
States with the highest price
NBS’s data also showed the soaring price of cooking gas is expected to add more pain to the cost of living of most states and also harmful to the country’s aspiration of transitioning to cleaner fuel, at a time global economies have increasingly encouraged citizens to engage in the climate-friendly use of energy.
For instance, the top five states with the highest average prices of 12kg in November 2021 were Ondo, Oyo, Osun, Imo, and Plateau with N8,721.43, N8,648.33, N8,431.25, N8184.6, and N8, 166.7 respectively.
Regarding 5kg cylinders, Edo, Cross River, and Ebonyi/Jigawa had the highest prices in November 2021, with N3,970.00, N3,933.33, and N3,820.00, respectively.
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States with the lowest price
The states with the lowest average price of 12kg cylinders include Borno State, Yobe State, Nasarawa State, Bauchi, and Akwa Ibom with N5,413.33, N6,300.00, N6,390.63, N6500, and N6681.8 respectively.
While on 5kg, Gombe, Bayelsa, and Delta had the lowest prices, with N2, 033.38, N2, 043.55, and N2, 196.33, respectively.
Regions with the highest price
In terms of price variations by zone for 12.5kg, the South-West had the highest price at N8,023.55, followed by the North-West and North-Central at N7,427.12 and N7,361.00, respectively, while the North-East zone had the lowest price of the product at N6,647.22.
Concerning 5kg, the South East has the highest price at N3, 722.18, followed by the North West and South-West, which have prices of N3, 620.60, and N3,540.57, respectively. In comparison to the other Zones, the North-East zone had the lowest price at N2, 492.23.
Quarter on Quarter
On 12.5kg, the average cooking prices generated in the third quarter for a five-year period hit N5,034 in the quarter (Q3) of 2021 which represented an increase by 22 percent from N4124.9 recorded in Q3 of 2020.
The average price of 12kg also decreased by 2 percent from N4193.9 in Q3 2019 to N4124.9 in Q3 2020. In the same vein, there was a decrease of 3 percent from Q3 2018 which was represented by N4329 to N4193.9 in Q3 2019.
However, an increase of 5 percent was recorded from N4118.2 Q3 2017 to N4329 in Q3 2018.
