Cooking gas price soars to N500/kg, retailers, consumers lament

The price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG, also known as cooking gas, has skyrocketed to a record high of five hundred naira per kilogramme, forcing some Nigerians to turn to alternatives such as charcoal, kerosene and firewood amid high unemployment and poverty levels in the country.
It was gathered that as cooking gas prices maintained an upward trend in recent months, more Nigerians, especially in the rural and semi-urban areas, have been discouraged from using the fuel for cooking, and some Nigerians who do not have prepaid electric meters are now increasingly using electric cookers in a bid to reduce their cooking gas usage.
The price of 20Metric Tons of the gas sold by terminal operators and importers surged by thirty point nine one per cent in six months to seven point two million naira on Thursday.
The National Chairman of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Retailers Branch of NUPENG, Chika Umudu, attributed the price hike to the country’s high dependence on importation of the commodity.