As Fuel Scarcity Bites, Air Fares Jump 97%, Bus Prices Rise 45% in One Year

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

With petrol scarcity biting hard and aviation fuel prices skyrocketing, Nigerians paid as much as 97 per cent more to fly locally, while the fare paid by citizens for bus transport increased by as much as 45 per cent between November 2021 and November 2022.

Data obtained from the latest report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicated that year-on-year, the price of refilling a 5 kilogramme of gas cylinder rose by 37.34 per cent as of last month.

Essentially, the report covered the cost of bus journey within the city per drop on a constant route; bus journey intercity charge per person; air fare charge for specified routes for a single journey; journey by motorcycle (Okada) per drop and waterway passenger transport.

For the better part of the year, Abuja and surroundings experienced unprecedented fuel scarcity, starting from around February this year, spreading intermittently to other parts of the country like Lagos.

At the time of putting this report together, many filling stations were selling for as much as N250 per litre, despite the controlled price of N180, while black market sellers sold the product for N4,000 for 10 litres.

While the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited  (NNPC), the sole importer of the product has said that it has enough stock in the depots, it has explained that distribution remains the major problem.

The NBS report stated that the average fare paid by commuters for bus journeys within the city per drop increased by 0.12 per cent in November 2022 on a month-on-month from N636.30 in October 2022 to N637.10.

However, on a year-on-year basis, the average fare paid by commuters for bus journeys within the city per drop rose by 42.69 per cent from N446.50 in November 2021.

In another category, the average fare paid by commuters for bus journey intercity per drop, the body stated, rose to N3,848.48 in November 2022, indicating an increase of 0.07 per cent on a month-on-month compared to the value of N3,845.81 in October 2022.

“On a year-on-year, the fare prices rose by 45.53 per cent from N2,644.50 in November 2021,” the NBS report added.

As for air travels, the statistics organisation stressed that the average fare paid by air passengers for specified routes single journey, increased by 0.09 per cent on a month-on-month from N73,198.65 in October 2022 to N73,267.57 in November 2022.

But on a year-on-year basis, the fare rose by 97.90 per cent from N37,022.97 in November 2021, the NBS document added.

Aside the scarcity of aviation fuel, prices of the product has also increased markedly in the last few months, from roughly N300 per litre to over N600 in recent times.

Also, average transport fare paid on motorcycle (Okada) transportation was N459.02 in November 2022, which was 0.12 per cent higher than the rate recorded in October 2022, that is N458.05, on a month-on-month basis.

On a year-on-year analysis, the fare rose by 45.13 per cent  when compared with November 2021 (N316.29).

As for water transport, the average fare paid for waterway passenger transportation in November 2022 increased to N1,006.33, showing a rise of 16.66 per cent on a year-on-year basis from N862.60 in November 2021 and 0.21 per cent on a month-on-month from N1,006.22 in October 2022.

Similarly, the average retail price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (cooking gas) increased by 1.46 per cent on a month-on-month basis from N4,483.75 recorded in October 2022 to N4,549.14 in November 2022. On a year-on-year basis, this rose by 37.34 per cent from N3,312.42 in November 2021.

On state profile analysis, Niger state recorded the highest average price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of cooking gas, with N4,983.33, followed by Kwara with N4,963.33, and Adamawa with N4,960.00.

On the other hand, Abia recorded the lowest price with N4,125.00, followed by Delta and Anambra with N4,202.78 and N4,204.17 respectively.

In addition, analysis by zone of the data, showed that the North-central recorded the highest average retail price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of cooking gas, with N4,852.74, followed by the North-east with N4,606.80, while the South-east recorded the lowest with N4,357.18.

Furthermore, the average retail price per litre of kerosene paid by consumers in November 2022 on a month-on-month basis was N1,083.57, indicating an increase of 4.08 per cent compared to N1,041.05 recorded in October 2022.

According to the information, on a year-on-year basis, the average retail price per litre of the product rose by 145.68 per cent from N441.06 in November 2021.

 In the same vein, on state profile analysis, the highest average price per litre in November 2022 was recorded in Akwa Ibom with N1,416.67, followed by Cross River with N1,366.67 and Abuja with N1,306.67.

On the other hand, the lowest price was recorded in Borno with N875.83, followed by Rivers with N910.00 and Nasarawa with N913.56.

As it is, Nigeria does not refine a litre of the fuels needed by its citizens, following years of neglect of the country’s crude oil refineries.