Frequent hikes in the petrol pump prices have left many Nigerian workers under serious pressure.
This comes as frequent increases in petrol pump prices resulted in the corresponding rise in transportation costs and eating deep into the pockets of salary earners.
According to them, while transportation costs continued to be on the rise for salary earners, the monthly pay cheque has remained constant in the last few months.
Many workers now spend close to 50 percent of their monthly salaries on transportation costs, which have continued to surge unabated.
Florence Omoregie, Lagos-based medical personnel, said she now spends a substantial portion of her monthly pay on transportation costs to and from the office.
Omoregie, who works six days a week, said she now spends over N130,000 monthly on transportation alone.
Pointing out that she earns a monthly pay of N250,000, she said spending about 48 percent of her pay cheque on transportation costs alone leaves the remaining 52 percent for other bills including feeding, accommodation, children’s fees, clothing, and other needs.
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“We struggle to meet up with important family needs because of the inflationary pressure where prices of foodstuff and other consumables are accelerating forcing salary earners to end the month with empty wallets,” she said.
BusinessDay checks show that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has adjusted the pump prices of the premium motor spirit (PMS) for a third time in one year.
The state-owned oil company increased the pump price to N998 per litre in Lagos, and N1,030 per litre in Abuja while some states sell as much as N1,200 per litre.
Earlier in September, the NNPC raised the petrol price from N617 per litre to N897 per litre.
Before the removal of the subsidy, the price of petrol per litre was below N200, but with the price review in May 2023 after the inauguration of President Bola Tinubu and the subsequent removal of the controversial fuel subsidy, moved the pump price to be between N480 and N570 per litre.
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The NNPC also increased fuel prices again in July 2023 to sell between N598 and N617 per litre.
Seun Babatunde, a top marketing officer, said that the costs of fueling his car on a weekly basis have increased given the increase in the petrol pump price.
Before now, Babatunde was spending about N65,700 on gasoline weekly, but with the current adjustment in pump prices, he said he spends nothing less than N100,000 on fuel per week, and about N400,000 monthly.
According to him, spending much on fuel alone takes a huge chunk of his monthly pay and leaves him with insufficient sums to cater to the needs of his family and himself.
He said the high costs of fueling have made driving to the office daily unattractive to salary earners especially now that employers of labour are battling to stay above troubled waters due to the growing economic headwinds in the country.
“I live in the Igando area of Lagos and work in the Victoria Island part of the city. Today my daily expansive are nearly N8,000, amounting to about N176,000 monthly,” said Chinedu Sunday, an HR expert.
Confirming that transportation is eating deep into his wallet, Sunday said he and his colleagues are seriously putting up a fight to secure a hybrid working option.
“We cannot go to the office every day with the present high costs of transportation especially without salary increment. If I continue to spend this much on transport, I will not have anything left to pay other bills,” he said.
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