The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has released a report on the inflated prices of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, popularly known as cooking gas across the Northern and South Southern parts of Nigeria.
This is amid the hardship in the country as the prices of goods and services continue to skyrocket.
The NBS in its report stated that the average retail price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of cooking gas increased by 3.55% on a month-on-month basis from N4,962.87 recorded in December 2023 to N5,139.25 in January 2024.
According to the NBS report, the price of cooking gas on a year-on-year basis increased by 12.00% from N4,588.75 recorded in January 2023.
The report stated that on state profile analysis, Nasarawa State recorded the highest average price inflation for refilling a 5kg Cylinder of cooking gas with N5,790, followed by Jigawa State with N5,681.82, and Gombe State with N5,660, all in the Northern region of Nigeria.
On the other hand, Kaduna State, also in the North, recorded the lowest price of cooking gas with N4,150, followed by Ogun and Osun states in the Southwestern region of the country with N4,751.04 and N4,763.53 respectively.
In addition, the report stated that analysis of cooking gas inflation price by zone showed that the North-East recorded the highest average retail price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of cooking gas with N5,296.32, followed by the North-Central with N5,240.36, while the South-West recorded the lowest with N4,805.05.
Also, the average retail price for refilling a 12.5kg cylinder of cooking gas increased by 1.96% on a month-on-month basis from N11,510.16 in December 2023 to N11,735.72 in January 2024, while on a year-on-year basis, the price rose by 14.19% from N10,277.17 in January 2023.
On state profile analysis, the report noted that Cross River State in the South-South region recorded the highest average retail price for the refilling of a 12.5kg cylinder of cooking gas with N13,040, followed by Jigawa State in the north with N12,875 and Zamfara State, also in the North with N12,725.
Meanwhile, the lowest average price for the refilling of a 12.5kg cylinder of cooking gas was recorded in Kaduna State in the North with N9,699.50, followed by Kwara and Niger states with N10,000 and N10,400 respectively.
The zonal analysis showed that the South-South recorded the highest average retail price for refilling a 12.5kg cylinder of cooking gas at N12,602.47, followed by the North-West at N12,224.93, while the South-West recorded the lowest price at N11,189.02.