The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has shown that the price of cooking gas increased by 38.63 per cent between January 2022 and January 2023 as 12.5kg increased from N7,413.25 to N10,277.17 in the 12 months under review.
According to the Bureau, in the yearly increase, the cost to refill the gas rose by only 0.28 per cent on a month-on-month basis from N10,248.97 in December 2022 to N10,277.17 in January 2023.
This revelation was made known in the Bureau’s “Cooking Gas Price Watch’’ for January 2023 released on Friday in Abuja.
State profile breakdown disclosed that Benue state recorded the highest average retail price of N11,260.67 for 12.5kg cooking gas, while Cross River state came second at N10,833.33 and Ebonyi state was third at N10,763.57.
In contrast, the report disclosed that the lowest average price for 12.5kg of cooking gas was recorded in Yobe state at N9,550.00, followed by Taraba state and Gombe state at N9,845.00 and N9,850.00.
The analysis also revealed that the average price of 5kg of cooking gas increased from N4,565.56 recorded in December 2022 to N4,588.75 in January 2023 representing a 0.15 percent increase on a year-on-year basis.
The surge in the price of cooking gas was a 25.46 per cent rise from N3,657.57 recorded in January 2022 to N4,588.75 in January 2023.
The NBS cooking gas report showed that Kwara state recorded the highest average price of N4,962.50 for 5kg cooking gas, followed by Plateau state at N4,945.50, and Adamawa at N4,936.67 in its state profile analysis.
Meanwhile, Enugu state had the lowest price at N4,119.23, while Anambra state and Rivers state at N4,183.14 and N4,210.00 respectively.
Reporting the statistics at the zonal level, the report showed that the North-Central documented the highest average retail price of N4,859.60, followed by the North-West at N4,616.66.
“The South-East recorded the lowest average retail price at N4,408.99,’’ the Bureau said.
source: vanguardngr