The tanker overturned along the Sapele-Benin road on Sunday night causing a spillage. It's understood that locals, mostly young people, flocked to the scene to fill containers with the spilled fuel, despite warnings. A spark then ignited a fire causing the deadly explosion.
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One of Nigeria's main oil and gas unions will join a nationwide strike starting on Oct. 3 to protest against government policies that are causing economic hardship for Nigerians, union leaders said on Thursday.
Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer and relies on the commodity for around 90% of foreign exchange earnings and about half its budget.
The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) directed its members to ensure "unwavering compliance" with the indefinite strike called by Nigeria's two biggest workers union federations.
NUPENG represents a myriad of workers across the entire value chain in the oil and gas sectors, including upstream oil platform workers, fuel tanker drivers and pump attendants, and its decision to join the strike is a significant escalation of the unions' dispute with the government.
NUPENG President Williams Akporeha said the government's policies have caused "excruciating and debilitating socio-economic pains" for Nigerians without any accompanying measures to cushion "the immediate effects and impacts."
President Bola Tinubu has been under pressure to reverse his decision to scrap a popular petrol subsidy that had kept fuel prices low but was costly on government finances.
While his policies have cheered investors, unions say they have led to soaring costs for Nigerians - an estimated four in 10 of whom live below the national poverty line- as they grapple with the highest inflation in nearly two decades.
By Camillus Eboh, Reuters
In August, Nigeria’s earnings from the export of crude oil grew by 188.7 billion naira (245 million U.S. dollars) due to an increase in the production of the commodity by foreign and domestic players. This financial windfall rode on the back of an increase in global oil prices. But experts worry the joy in the industry may be short-lived due to subpar crude production and the government’s huge spending.
Shell's (SHEL.L) Nigerian business is investigating a possible leak on its Trans Niger oil pipeline, which passes through the Bodo community in Rivers state, after being alerted to the potential problem on Aug. 18.
Oil theft and pipeline sabotage are common in the southern oil production heartland of Nigeria, with Shell blaming most spills on pipeline vandalism and illegal tapping of crude.
The 180,000 barrel per day (bpd) pipeline is one of two conduits that export Bonny Light crude from Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer.
"We are working with the community and other stakeholders to ensure we can safely look into and resolve this situation," said company spokesperson Bola Essien-Nelson without providing further detail.
No force majeure has been declared.
The investigation into the Trans Niger pipeline comes days after another Shell pipeline in Nigeria resumed exports.
The medium sweet grade Forcados was scheduled to ship 220,000 bpd in July, but loadings were suspended for about a month because of a potential leak at the export terminal.
The cause of the Forcados suspension has yet to be determined by a joint investigation between company and community representatives in tandem with government agencies.
By Tife Owolabi, Reuters
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Nigeria has saved over 1 trillion naira ($1.32 billion) in just over two months by scrapping a popular but costly subsidy on petrol and moved to unify its multiple exchange rates, President Bola Tinubu said on Monday.
Tinubu is under pressure as prices soar following the country's boldest reforms in decades, which labour unions say have hurt the poor.
A meeting between unions and government to try to avert a planned strike from Wednesday ended without an agreement late on Monday, union officials said.
In a television broadcast, Tinubu defended his decision to scrap the petrol subsidy, which he said benefited a few elites and that the reforms would help boost the economy.
"In a little over two months, we have saved over a trillion naira that would have been squandered on the unproductive fuel subsidy which only benefited smugglers and fraudsters," Tinubu said.
The president said he was aware of the hardship caused by removing the subsidy and was "monitoring the effects of the exchange rate and inflation on gasoline prices," adding that he would intervene if and when necessary.
The World Bank said last month Nigeria could save up to 3.9 trillion naira this year alone after Tinubu's reforms but warned of growing short-term inflationary pressures.
Unions are pressuring Tinubu to offer relief to households and small businesses. Tinubu announced a 500 billion naira package which includes mass transit buses and cheap loans to farmers and small businesses to boost employment.
Earlier on Monday, the government said it had released grains to families, directed authorities in public schools to defer hiking school fees and will provide buses to ease transport costs for students. It also plans to set up a fund from the subsidy savings to build infrastructure.
"Sadly, there was an unavoidable lag between subsidy removal and these plans coming fully online. However, we are swiftly closing the time gap," Tinubu said.
By Felix Onuah, Reuters
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Fuel prices triple in Nigeria, squeezing millions already struggling
One of Europe's main markets for gasoline has shrunk, threatening to squeeze European refiners, after Nigeria removed fuel subsidies, which destroyed much of the country's domestic demand and a regional market for smuggled fuel.
North America and West Africa (WAF), with Nigeria at the helm, historically have been the top two destinations for petrol exports from Europe, which produces more gasoline than it uses, meaning its refiners rely on exports to support profit margins.
A steady decline in European refining margins in recent years, as competition from the Middle East, the United States and Asia grew, was reversed when fears of fuel supply shortages boosted profits after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
So far, benchmark profit margins for gasoline in northwestern Europe have held firm at around $27 a barrel, Refinitiv Eikon data shows.
They have been supported by demand from North America, a shortage of high quality blending materials, disruption caused by low water levels inland and local refinery outages.
But analysts say the reduction of flows following the upheaval in Nigeria will increase pressure on European refiners, and any winners are likely to be newer Middle Eastern refineries.
At the end of May, Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu scrapped a popular but expensive subsidy on the fuel, which cost the cash-strapped government $10 billion last year. Petrol demand in response fell by 28%, official data showed.
Symptomatic of the fall in demand, onshore gasoline stocks in Nigeria have climbed to 960,000 tonnes from an average 613,000 tonnes between January and June, said Jeremy Parker at the CITAC consultancy which focuses on Africa's downstream energy market.
Meanwhile, the black market for smuggled subsidised Nigerian fuel in Togo and neighbouring Benin and Cameroon has collapsed, further reducing demand for shipments via Nigeria.
There is no reliable data on how much fuel was smuggled out of Nigeria under the subsidy regime, but a comparison of estimates from official and independent sources indicate more than a third of petrol could have left state oil firm NNPC's depots every day to be sold illegally abroad.
Without the subsidy, the financial incentive for smuggling disappears.
Average monthly West African (WAF) gasoline imports fell by 56% in the second quarter compared with the first, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.
"The key point is demand from West Africa is drying up," said Refinitiv Lead Oil Analyst Raj Rajendran.
Seasonally, June loadings from the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) hub to West Africa fell to 629,000 tonnes this year from 895,000 tonnes last year and 1.2 million tonnes in 2021, Refinitiv data showed.
Loadings dropped to 627,000 tonnes in July so far this year from 1.5 million tonnes last year and 1.4 million tonnes at the same time in 2021.
By contrast ARA exports to the United States rose to reach 695,000 tonnes so far this year in July, compared with 449,000 tonnes last year, although they were down from 791,000 tonnes in 2021.
Gasoline stockpiles in the ARA hub are higher seasonally than they have been at least since 2003, according to Insights Global data, as U.S. exports from the region did not fully compensate for the lower WAF exports.
Nigeria, Africa's largest crude oil producer, relies heavily on imports because of its inadequate domestic refining capacity.
Imports, however, are increasingly unaffordable as Nigeria's naira has weakened to record lows since the central bank removed currency restrictions in June. At the same time, inflation is near two-decade highs.
The huge, much-delayed Dangote refinery was designed to address the domestic supply shortfall, but full 650,000 barrel per day production is unlikely before the second quarter of 2025, CITAC estimates.
Analysts said it was possible demand would not fully recover.
"Demand for barrels into WAF may be lower at the moment as the market sorts itself out again post-subsidies. There may simply be a baseline decrease in demand," said Sparta Commodities gasoline market analyst Philip Jones-Lux.
For alternative supplies that are cheaper and therefore more palatable for Nigerian buyers, Jones-Lux points to imports from the Mideast Gulf and Russia. "The volumes appear small still, but not insignificant," he said.
Sparta estimates that fuel from the Mideast Gulf is around $35-$50 per tonne cheaper than ARA imports, around triple last week's spread, which could mean increased volumes into West Africa of Middle Eastern fuel.
An increase in direct Russian gasoline flows into West Africa started in January, but cumulative volumes, while growing from virtually non-existent in recent years to around 800,000 tonnes year-to-date, are still small, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.
"It’s not like (Russia is) capturing a bigger share of that market from European refiners. The challenge is coming from the new refineries in the Middle East that are expanding from their traditional East Africa market to now include West Africa and beyond even to the Americas," Rajendran said.
By Shadia Nasralla, Reuters
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Petrol use in Nigeria down 28% after subsidy scrapped
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At least eight people were killed when a fuel truck exploded in southwestern Nigeria as residents were trying to siphon petrol out of it, police said on Monday.
The truck was involved in an accident on Sunday night in a neighbourhood of Ondo state which caused it to veer off the road and topple on its side, the police said.
"Some people went there to scoop fuel, in the process the tanker exploded," said Ondo state police spokesman Fumilayo Odunlami-Omisanya.
The price of petrol has more than tripled since the removal of a decades-old subsidy at the end of May, hitting motorists and households and small businesses who use petrol generators for power.
By Tife Owolabi, Reuters
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Nigeria's state-owned oil firm NNPC Ltd said on Monday an 800,000-litre (211,338-U.S. gallon) vessel carrying stolen crude had been intercepted offshore while heading to Cameroon and would be destroyed as a deterrent to oil theft.
Crude theft from pipelines and wells in the Niger Delta has hobbled the country's output in recent years and is one of the biggest challenges to confront new President Bola Tinubu.
NNPC said the oil was stolen from a well in south western Ondo state. The MT Tura II vessel was owned by locally registered Holab Maritime Services Limited and had no valid documentation for the oil, the company said.
Holab could not be reached for comment on numbers listed on its website.
"Destroying vessels involved in transporting stolen crude oil is of paramount importance as a strong deterrent," NNPC said.
NNPC circulated a video showing the vessel surrounded by armed Nigerian security agents.
Reporting By MacDonald Dzirutwe, Reuters
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Nigeria's average daily petrol consumption has fallen by 28% since President Bola Tinubu scrapped a popular but costly subsidy on the fuel at the end of May, data from the industry regulator shows.
Average daily petrol consumption fell to 48.43 million litres in June, down from the previous average of 66.9 million, according to figures released to Reuters by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
A subsidy had kept prices cheap for decades in Africa's biggest economy but it became increasingly expensive for the country - the government spent $10 billion last year - leading to wider deficits and driving up government debt.
Since the subsidy was ended, a black market in neighbouring Cameroon, Benin and Togo that relied on petrol smuggled from Nigeria has collapsed.
Despite having spent $2.41 billion on the subsidy in the first five months, Nigeria could save up to $5.10 billion this year from scrapping the petrol subsidy and from FX reforms, the World Bank said on June 27.
By Elisha Bala-Gbogbo, Reuters
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Many countries are scrapping oil subsidies and raising taxes to help generate revenue. Nigeria's fuel subsidy kept prices below half the real cost since the 1970s. And now, consumers are being forced to pay up as the government tries to recover those losses.
Nigeria will save more than 21 trillion naira ($28 billion) in two years after scrapping gasoline subsidies and allowing its currency to weaken, according to the World Bank.
The savings will help President Bola Tinubu’s government cut its record fiscal deficit and a debt-service burden that surpassed revenue in 2022, the Washington-based lender said in a report. The budget shortfall will narrow to 3.9% of gross domestic product by 2025 from 5.1% this year, according to the report.
Scrapping the fuel cap will enable Nigeria’s state oil company to export crude instead of setting it aside to pay for the subsidies. Easing foreign-exchange controls will help the government convert overseas earnings at market prices rather than at “overvalued” rates, the bank said.
It forecast Africa’s biggest economy will expand 4% from 2024 should it implement urgently required reforms. The continent’s most populous nation has for years resisted calls by the World Bank to do away with its costly gasoline subsidies and myriad exchange rates that have stymied growth.
Africa’s largest crude producer should take further steps to increase non-oil revenue, lower inflation and expand the social safety net to protect the poor and most vulnerable, the World Bank said.
“The government could propose a compact with Nigerian citizens that directly links the phased-out subsidy to compensatory cash transfers,” it said.
More from the report:
. Inflation will accelerate to an average of 25% this year, compared with 18.8% in 2022
. Debt service as a proportion of federal government revenue will drop to 76% by 2025 from 121% this year.
By Anthony Osae-Brown, Bloomberg
Nigerian authorities and Shell's local subsidiary were on Monday investigating the cause of a spill on the Trans Niger pipeline that lasted several days.
The 180,000-barrel-per-day pipeline is one of two conduits to export Bonny Light crude.
The spill at Eleme in Rivers state was detected on June 11 and four days later, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) confirmed it in a statement.
Environmental rights groups said the spill lasted a week before it was contained.
A team comprising SPDC, Nigerian Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency and local communities were at the site on Monday to gather information, analyse data, examine physical evidence, and assess the causes of the leak, said Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre which monitors spills in the Niger Delta.
A Shell spokesperson confirmed Monday's visit to the site.
The investigation will determine the volume of oil spilt.
Shell has over the years faced several legal battles over oil spills in the Niger Delta, a region blighted by pollution, conflict and corruption related to the oil and gas industry.
The oil major blames most of the spills on pipeline vandalism and illegal tapping of crude.
Thandile Chinyavanhu, Greenpeace Africa climate and energy campaigner, said the latest spill compounded Shell's record in one of Africa's leading oil producers.
"Shell must be held accountable and financially responsible for this spill and for its neocolonial role in causing climate loss and damage," Chinyavanhu said.
By Tife Owolabi, Reuters
Nigeria has accumulated up to $3 billion in debts to trading houses such as Vitol and oil majors such as BP (BP.L) for fuel supplies and is trailing four to six months behind schedule in repaying them with cargoes of crude, four traders and executives told Reuters.
Nigeria will likely take months to clear the debt, which will complicate reforms by new President Bola Tinubu aimed at weaning Africa's largest economy and most populous nation off costly fuel subsidies that have contributed to growing debt and foreign exchange shortages.
In his first two weeks in office, Tinubu removed petrol price caps and restrictions on the naira currency – liberalisation changes that investors have been awaiting for more than a decade.
As part of those reforms, Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer, plans to scrap an old scheme by which it swaps its crude for gasoline imports. Nigeria for years sold the gasoline, bought at the open market price, to its population at a discount, and the government paid the difference.
The subsidy costs about $10 billion last year. The last time the government tried to end the scheme, the move led to protests. Nigeria needs imports because it lacks the refinery capacity necessary to meet domestic demand.
The head of Nigeria's state oil firm NNPC, Mele Kyari, said earlier this month it was ending the swaps - known as Direct Purchase Direct Sale (DSDP) - after years of criticism by civil society groups including the Nigerian Extractive Transparency Initiative for a lack of transparency and corruption.
Kyari said payments would be now made in cash but traders say NNPC is still importing gasoline via swaps for July delivery and has to pay for those cargoes in crude as well as the pending payments for previous months of swaps.
The arrangement has for years involved more than a dozen foreign and local trading consortia and backpayments are expected to continue until at least October 2023, according to the four traders involved in business with NNPC.
NPPC, which claims the government owes it $6 billion for subsidised fuel sales, declined to comment. The government declined to comment. Swaps participants including Vitol, Mercuria, BP and TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) also declined to comment.
"Swaps will ultimately stop but not yet. We are getting our swaps crude cargo in October at the earliest," one major player said.
NNPC had made a rare cash payment in May to some partners of around $200 million, two trading sources said, but no further payment has taken place since amid the government's cash struggles.
Nigeria's falling oil production has exacerbated the country's fiscal problems, because it reduces the revenue that could be used to repay debt.
Nigeria used to produce 1.8 million barrels per day of crude but output has fallen in recent years to as little as 1.1 million during due to lack of investment.
PRIVATE IMPORTERS
Paying for fuel deliveries with crude cargoes means there is less crude for Nigeria and NNPC's to export, and so less revenue.
NNPC's contribution to state coffers went from a peak of more than $30 billion a year in 2011 to zero in 2022 as it retained revenues to cover gasoline sale losses.
International monetary experts have long suggested Nigeria remove fuel subsidies and liberalise its foreign exchange to address its fiscal crisis.
In recent years, Nigeria's central bank kept the naira fixed at an artificially high rate that gradually rose from 200 to 450 naira to the dollar that only a few players, including the NNPC, could access. That shut out potential private gasoline importers from the market.
President Tinubu allowed the naira to fall steeply in recent weeks, and eliminated preferential naira rates, a move that means all potential importers get the same forex costs and could compete in fuel imports.
But the naira volatility, which makes it tough to calculate potential profits, and uncertainty over whether firms will be able to get money out of the country due to continued dollar shortages, has for now deterred private firms from importing fuel.
Besides private importers, Nigeria will also depend on businessman Aliko Dangote's refinery to cover fuel demand in the future. Nigeria's first major oil plant is unlikely to start full-scale operations before next year.
By Julia Payne, Reuters
Things have been topsy turvy lately on the roadsides of West African nations where cheap contraband petrol from Nigeria has abruptly doubled in price, upending an informal sector that is central to the region's economic activity.
Since Nigeria scrapped a state fuel subsidy on May 31, black market fuel vendors and commercial drivers in Cameroon, Benin and Togo who were heavily reliant on petrol smuggled from Nigeria have seen their businesses collapse.
With supplies dwindling, queues have been forming at official petrol stations, where fuel is now competitively priced.
In Garoua, a town in northwest Cameroon about 60 km (37 miles) east of the Nigerian border, a litre of petrol on the black market used to sell for about 300 CFA francs ($0.48). Now the minimum is 600 CFA francs, vendors said.
"Supply has become scarce and customers think we're ripping them off with this high price, yet it's from Nigeria that prices have soared," said Perevet Dieudonne, a black market seller.
The knock-on effects on motorcycle-taxis, a form of public transport ubiquitous in West Africa, include conflict between riders who often live hand-to-mouth and customers who demand cheap fares no matter what.
Ousmanou Mal Djoulde, a rider in Garoua, said he had been forced to more than double his fares. Many customers were refusing to pay and business was agonisingly slow.
The trade in black market fuel is so central to the local economy that authorities either turn a blind eye or are complicit. A Reuters reporter in Garoua saw a Cameroonian customs officer sitting on a motorcycle-taxi that was being refuelled with smuggled Nigerian petrol.
RAMPANT SMUGGLING
There is no reliable data on the amount of fuel that is smuggled from Nigeria.
The head of Nigeria's state-controlled oil firm NNPC, the sole supplier, said early this month 66 million litres of petrol left its depots daily but could not say how much was consumed locally, though he admitted smuggling was rampant.
Independent energy experts and Nigeria's Dangote Petroleum Refinery - which expects to start producing petrol from early August to alleviate chronic fuel shortages - put Nigeria's total daily consumption below 40 million litres.
In Benin and Togo, small nations to the west of Nigeria, contraband fuel vendors have lost both supplies and customers while formerly sleepy official petrol stations are suddenly busy.
At Hilacondji, a border crossing between Togo and Benin, some black market fuel stalls were shut, while at others vendors waited among rows of empty plastic jerricans for potential deliveries.
"While we wait for the situation to improve, some have gone into fishing or other small businesses," said Ayi Hilla, who had been making a living from selling contraband fuel for 10 years but was now focusing on running a small roadside bar.
Some informal fuel depots were being demolished, and men who used to work there unloading and carrying petrol were now unemployed.
More than 80% of employment in Africa is informal, according to the United Nations, making the informal sector a key driver of economic activity.
In Cotonou, the commercial capital of Benin which is about 60 km from Nigeria, queues have been building up at official petrol stations and some have been unable to meet the sudden surge in demand, especially from "zemidjan", the local word for motorcycle-taxis.
"Before, we were selling about 2,000 litres per day, but now we're selling up to 7,000 litres per day," said a worker at the JNP fuel station who gave his first name, Janvier. He had just turned away four customers because supplies had run out.
"The zemidjan-men are even fighting to get served," said Janvier.
By Desire Danga Essigue, Reuters
Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu said on Monday the United States should help with more funding to help Africa's leading oil producer accelerate its energy transition plans as he pledged to meet the country's climate change goals.
Oil remains Nigeria's biggest foreign exchange earner and like many African nations, Nigeria argues that it still needs to exploit its hydrocarbons to help provide power to millions of citizens without electricity.
In a meeting with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Energy Resources, Geoffrey Praytt, Nigeria's president said the U.S. should speed up funding to help the West African nation achieve its energy transition goals.
"There are bottlenecks that must be unbottled in terms of how the U.S. bureaucracy responds to our needs. Help must be given when it is needed. Please take it home that we need help and very quickly too," Tinubu said.
"I want to assure you that Nigeria will honour her obligations on climate change and renewables," he said.
Nigeria's previous junior petroleum minister told U.S. climate envoy John Kerry last September that there was "some moral basis" for Nigeria to get funding from rich nations to meet its climate change goals.
Under Tinubu's economic plans, Nigeria would ramp up oil production to 4 million barrels per day, from an average 1.4 million bpd, which has raised questions on whether the country is still committed to its climate change goals.
By Felix Onuah, Reuters
Nigeria's main labour unions and the government on Monday set an eight-week timeline to finalise an agreement to raise the minimum wage to help cushion the impact of high fuel prices after the removal of a popular but costly petrol subsidy.
The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) had threatened to strike after fuel prices tripled following President Bola Tinubu's decision to scrap the subsidy.
Talks with the unions are one of the first challenges the new administration faces as it pushes forward with a raft of economic reforms.
The parties agreed to set up work groups whose terms of reference will be agreed later on Tuesday with some expected to start submitting their reports next week.
"Both parties went through the list (of demands) and we ticked off the viable ones which are now broken into three categories; those that can be given immediate attention, those that can be achieved in the medium term, and long term," said Dele Alake, a spokesman for the president, said.
TUC President Festus Osifo said the process would be completed in eight weeks.
"Everything must be rolled out within that time, (it is) not something that we are going to leave endlessly," he said.
The parties will reconvene on June 26.
Tinubu, who took office last month, is embarking on Nigeria's biggest reforms in decades, seeking to tackle low growth, high debt burden, rising inflation and mounting insecurity in Africa's largest economy.
In 2012, a wave of strikes and protests ensued when the government tried to end the subsidy, with authorities eventually backtracking. Tinubu, then in the opposition, was among those who opposed the measure.
By Camilus Eboh, Reuters
Less than a month into his tenure, President Bola Tinubu has begun implementing a raft of reforms long sought by bankers, economists and multilateral lenders in order to revive Africa's biggest economy. The radical changes include removing a fuel subsidy that cost the state 10 billion U.S. dollars annually.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday defended the West African nation’s decision last week to stop subsidizing fuel, a move that has pushed up prices for transportation and commodities.
Tinubu appealed for patience as millions of citizens face additional economic hardship. The money saved by ending the decades-old subsidy will help the government’s efforts to fight poverty and implement other initiatives, he told governors in a meeting in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja.
“We can see the effects of poverty on the faces of our people. Poverty is not hereditary, it is from society. Our position is to eliminate poverty,’’ a statement from the Nigerian presidency quoted Tinubu as saying.
The governors supported the subsidy’s removal and promised to work together in implementing it, the presidency’s statement said.
Though Nigeria is an oil-producing nation, it depends on imported refined petroleum products, and the government has subsidized the cost for decades.
But with oil revenues dwindling amid chronic theft and decreasing foreign investment, the government said the fuel subsidies are no longer economically sustainable. It budgeted 4.4 trillion naira ($9.5 billion) for the subsidies in 2022, far more than for education, health care and infrastructure combined.
Analysts, however, faulted the government’s decision to withdraw the subsidy without incentives in place, especially at a time when many Nigerians already struggle to cope with record high unemployment and poverty.
Inflation is at an 18-year high. Unions have threatened strike in protest of the subsidy decision.
Nigeria’s states have begun to adopt various measures seeking to assist citizens, especially workers commuting to work daily. Edo and Kwara states this week cut the work week from five days to three. Other states said Wednesday they are considering such measures as increasing the minimum wage of 30,000 naira ($65).
In Abuja and other parts of Nigeria, The Associated Press found businesses struggling from having to spend more money on fuel for generators. As many as 46% of Nigeria’s people do not have access to electricity, the World Bank says.
In Kano state, the economic hub of northern Nigeria, Mahmud Mudi, a taxi driver, said he had to halt his transport business because he was losing money due to higher gasoline prices.
“The situation is unbearable,” Mudi said. “As a family man, the already unfriendly economy has been worsened by this removal of fuel subsidy. I have had to suspend my taxi operations and rely on divine intervention.”
Rafi’atu Audi, a government employee in the state, said it was difficult to commute to work daily because of the sharp increase in transportation costs.
“Transport fares have shot up, but our salaries remain the same,” said Audi. “It’s painful (and) I cannot bear the costs anymore.”
By Chinedu Asadu, AP
Related stories: Main union in Nigeria to suspend strike over petrol subsidy
The aftermath of fuel subsidy removal announcement in Nigeria
Nigeria's main labour union agreed after meeting with the government on Monday night to suspend a planned indefinite strike to protest the removal of a popular decades-old petrol subsidy, a signed resolution of the agreement showed.
The government had obtained a court injunction stopping Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) from embarking on the strike from June 7, after petrol prices nearly tripled following the subsidy removal last week. Trade Union Congress (TUC) was also cited although it had not yet called for a strike.
On taking office a week ago, President Bola Tinubu immediately scrapped the costly subsidy, which began in the 1970s, causing an uproar from unions.
In 2012, a wave of strikes ensued when Nigeria tried to introduce a similar measure, with authorities eventually reinstating some subsidies. Tinubu, then in the opposition, was among those who opposed ending the subsidies.
A meeting between government representatives and NLC and TUC leaders agreed on Monday that the NLC would "suspend the notice to strike forthwith to enable further consultations."
NLC's executive is expected to meet on Tuesday to approve the agreement with government.
The parties would continue discussions on the union demands, including the upgrade of state-owned refineries so they can produce petrol locally to keep prices low.
Another meeting would be held on June 19 to discuss how to implement any agreements.
TUC, in a statement on Monday, issued a raft of demands to the government, including a rise in the monthly minimum wage to 200,000 naira (433.79) from 30,000 naira with effect from this month and that the new wage should not be taxed.
Tinubu said last week Nigeria needed to review its minimum wage but did not say to what level.
By Felix Onuah, Reuters
