By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigerians had to contend with an increase in the prices of energy fuels in the month of November, with the cost of purchasing Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol), Automotive Gas Oil (Diesel), and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Cooking Gas) rising.
This was gathered by Business Post from the latest data sets provided by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday.
The average retail price paid by consumers for petrol for November 2022 was N202.48, indicating a 29.8 per cent increase when compared to the value recorded in November 2021 (N167.60). Likewise, comparing the average price value with the previous month (October 2022), the average retail price increased by 3.7 per cent from N195.29.
This is as the country battled fuel scarcity which saw Nigerians queued for fuel due to the unavailability of the commodity despite claims of self-sufficiency by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
On the state profiles analyses, Kwara State had the highest average retail price for the commodity at N217.14. Enugu and Gombe States were next, with N215.71 and N215.00, respectively.
On the other side, Ekiti, Akwa Ibom and Delta States had the lowest average retail prices at N189.06, 189.33 and 190.00, respectively.
By the zonal profile, the NBS report showed that the North-Central zone had the highest average retail price of N207.35, while the South-South zone had the lowest price of N194.58.
For diesel, the average price paid by consumers in the month under review was N808.87 per litre. This shows an increase of 191.14 per cent on a year-on-year basis from a lower cost of N277.83 per litre recorded in the corresponding month of last year.
While on a month-on-month basis, the price increased by 0.97 per cent from N801.09 recorded in the preceding month of October 2022. Looking at the variations in the state prices, the top three states with the highest average price of the product in November 2022 include Ebonyi (N869.00), Plateau (N865.00) and Nasarawa (N858.89).
Furthermore, the top three lowest prices were recorded in the following State, namely Akwa Ibom (N750.00), Benue (N772.00) and Borno (N780.50)
The zonal representation of the average price of diesel also showed that North-Central has the highest price of N826.88 while the South-South zone has the lowest price of N783.73 when compared with other zones.
The average retail price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of LPG, otherwise known as cooking gas, sold for N4,549.14 in November 2022, which on a year-on-year basis, indicated a 37.3 per cent rise from N3,312.42 in November 2021.
The price, however, increased by 1.46 per cent on a month-on-month basis from N4,483.75 recorded in October 2022.
On State profile analysis, Niger recorded the highest average price for refilling a 5kg 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 also showed that the North-Central recorded the highest average retail price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of LPG with N4,852.74, followed by the North-East with N4,606.80, while the South-East recorded the lowest with N4,357.18.
Dipo Olowookere