Weeks after Nigeria experienced harrowing fuel scarcity, blamed largely on the rising prices of crude oil globally amidst the Russia-Ukraine crisis and the dirty fuel saga, another wave of fuel scarcity is looming in the country. Queues are again getting longer in the country’s Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Data from NBS show that transportation fares increased as a result of the fuel scarcity in February. The bureau’s data showed that in February, the average fare paid by commuters for bus journeys within a city per drop, increased by 4.41 percent on a month-on-month from N513.72 in February 2022 to N536.35 in March 2022. The average fare paid by commuters for bus journeys intercity per drop rose to N3,270.94 in March 2022 representing an increase of 5.29percent on a month-on-month compared to the value of N3,106.72 in February 2022.
As the queues have grown longer again in the FCT, transport fares have again increased which were already high as a result of the earlier scarcity as confirmed by the NBS data.
Black market sellers are back on the streets, taking advantage of the scarcity.
Marketers have blamed the current scarcity on an alleged N500 billion debt owed to them by the government. During the February scarcity the marketers had disagreed with the government over N500,000 transhipment rate for petroleum.
The Marketers have said that Nigerians should prepare for worse scarcity, noting that the government failed to pay a N500 billion bridging claims. The group noted that only 5% of marketers in the country can afford to transport petroleum products around the country due to the high cost of diesel and only payment of the bridging cost by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority can ease the pain.
There has been no official reaction to the claims.
Nigeria at the Risk of Worsening Inflation
The impact of this scarcity may be dire for the country especially given the inflation figure which stood at 15.92% as of March, 2022. The figure was an increase over the 15.70% recorded in February, 2022, which was also an increase from the 15.60% recorded in January, 2022.
During February and March, the heightened inflation was strengthened by a fuel scarcity that bit hard in many parts of the country.
The logic is simple, if Mr. A’s cost of transportation increases for moving goods from one end to another, he will factor it into his entire purchase cost and in the long run, the end-user, that is the buyer, pays for the goods at a higher cost.
The cost of diesel has also continued to rise
An earlier Dataphyte analysis had warned of the need to resolve the impasse with Petrol marketers to mitigate its effects on the economy and the people especially in the face of dire predictions of more people being pushed into poverty and food insecurity.