Kwara residents lament high price of cooking gas

Residents of Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, have expressed worry over the continuous rise in the price of cooking gas.

Speaking with Daily Trust on the issue, the people said the incessant rise in the price of the commodity had further worsened the economy of many families.

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A housewife, Halimat Garuba, expressed surprise that a 12.5-kg cylinder she refilled with N4,500 a few months ago now cost N5,000, while 6.5kg previously sold for N2,000 is now N2,500.

“We are not only surprised but helpless over this astronomical increase in the price of the commodity. It is so frustrating that you are not sure of the next refill price despite all the rhetoric of abundance of gas in the country”, she said.

A restaurant operator at Stadium Road, Emiley Oladokun, said the price hike had affected her business. “Although, it is more convenient and faster to other cooking sources, a situation where you spend about 10,000 cooking gas alone is not tenable, business wise,” she said.

For her part, a civil servant, Bose Oguntokun, described the situation as very worrisome and urged the government to intervene.

A gas dealer in the city, Okafor Nwachukwu, blamed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the forex crisis.

“Importers of cooking gas source foreign exchange at high prices and this affects the price of the product. The cost of importation dictates the price it gets to consumers because no importer runs a charitable organization”, he said.