The increasing price of gas on weekly basis has forced many users to switch to the use of firewood and charcoal.
The marketers of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas commonly called Cooking Gas are beginning to complain on how sales are gradually dropping.
Users of this commodity in places like Lagos, Abuja, and other states who own restaurants are now switching to the available and cheapest alternatives to remain in business.
The owner of a restaurant close to the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja said the increase in cooking gas is so high that it will be hard if they continue to use it for the number of customers that troops in every day and still make profits without having to increase the price of food.
According to her
“The 12.5kg cylinder of gas that was bought for about #3000 some months ago is now #9,500 and #11,000 sometime last week depending on where you get it from. Now tell me, how can you break when you pay such an amount for gas knowing that cannot you cannot increase the price of food or reduce it quantity without losing customers? We had to switch to charcoal in order to stay afloat and only switch to has when we run out of charcoals. And surprisingly, the prices of charcoal and kerosenee increasing too”.
Funmilayo Thompson, a caterer in the Egbeda area of Lagos state also said that the increase in cooking gas has made her switch to firewood.
Marketers of LPG are beginning to raise alarms on how dangerous the use of charcoals and firewood can be to the health of Nigerians. They also fear that this could lead to termination of appoints for those in the sector.
The Executive Secretary, Nigeria Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers, Bassey Essien expresses hope that there might be improvement at the end of the week.
He said this was caused as a result of the reintroduction of customs duty and Value Added Tax on imported LPG.