Cooking gas (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) has become scarce in Lagos. This is according to Oladapo Olatunbosun, the President of the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers.
He confirmed this to Punch over the weekend. According to him, cooking gas has become scarce in Lagos state. This has also been recorded in a number of states outside Lagos.
According to a Punch report, these states include; Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Katsina and Delta states and residents in some of these states now must pay as high as N1,400 per kilogram when they go to refill their gas canisters.
However, no official reason was given for the scarcity. Olatunbosun said:
He stated further that there is no justification for the current increase in refill prices. He said that stakeholders along the value chain were using the foreign exchange rate somersault as a reason to increase LPG prices, adding that 12.5kg refill prices could reach N18,000 by December 2023.
He said:
In Abuja, the federal capital territory (FCT), cooking gas is not scarce, at least not yet. However, residents are buying the commodity for as high as N1,200 per kilogram.
However, Punch reports that in the earlier-mentioned states, cooking gas has become a luxury as residents have to resort to the black market to refill their gas canisters.
Note that Naijaonpoint recently reported on some factors that affect the cost and availability of cooking gas in Nigeria: