The economic hardship faced by Nigerians heightened over the last couple of weeks, as the prices of some petroleum products, such as Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), also known as cooking gas; kerosene and Automotive Gasoline Oil (AGO) also known as diesel, recorded significant increases, forcing Nigerians to spend a huge chunk of their earnings on the essential commodities, Vanguard reports.
In spite of several complaints and cries, the Federal Government and its agencies in charge of the sector such as the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC) and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), have refused to provide any explanation for the rise in the prices of the commodity, especially in the face of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s new foreign exchange policy which had helped narrow down the official and the parallel markets exchange rates.
Only kerosene and sometimes, diesel, are imported into the country, while LPG is produced locally and to a large extent, not traded in foreign currency. The price of diesel rose from about N130 per litre, a price it had been selling for about three years, to over N200 this week, while the price of cooking gas and kerosene, two important commodities used by almost every home in Nigeria, rose from about N2,500 for a 12.5 kilogramme cylinder and N83 per litre to N4,000 and N230 per litre respectively.
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