On Monday, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria threatened to stop providing its services in protest of the country’s eastern regions’ ongoing price increases for premium motor spirits.
The price increase was attributed by the marketers to private depots in a statement.
They claimed to be purchasing fuel from depots for N185 per liter, noting that the cost would rise to N200 per liter if additional costs were factored in.
The marketers noted that despite charging N200 per liter, their companies were unable to prosper due to the high cost of fuel to run the station as well as the station’s exploitation by private tank depot owners and NUPENG.
To be able to purchase the premium motor spirit at a set price, they pleaded with the Federal Government to reopen all NNPC depots in the Eastern zone.
They also asked the Nigerian Labour Congress to intervene in their request to NUPENG to lower the loading cost.
The food and energy crisis in Nigeria will intensify as the naira falls, according to W’Bank
According to the World Bank’s most recent Commodity Markets Outlook report, the declining value of the Nigerian naira and the currencies of other emerging economies are raising food and gasoline costs in ways that could exacerbate the food and energy crises that many of them already face.
According to the research, prices for the majority of commodities have dropped from their recent peaks in US dollars amid worries about a coming global recession.
The price of Brent crude oil in US dollars declined by almost 6% between the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the end of last month, it was also stated. However, due to currency depreciations, domestic oil prices rose in over 60% of the oil-importing emerging market and developing nations during this time.
The Washington-based bank estimates that in roughly 90% of these economies, the spike in wheat prices in local currencies was greater than the rise in U.S. dollars.
It claimed that rising energy commodity costs, which were used as inputs in agricultural production, were responsible for raising food prices.
Studies from the World Bank Group revealed that South Asia experienced an average increase in food prices of more than 20% during the first three quarters of 2022. Other regions, such as Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, experienced an average increase in food prices of 12 to 15%.
