….Despite Increases In Fuel, Diesel Prices
Despite the surging inflation rate reported in October this year by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in Nigeria, the statistics agency on Wednesday reported that commuters paid less for transport fares in the month.
The Bureau, in the ‘Transport Fare Watch (October 2023)’ published on its website, which covers bus journey within the city per drop constant route; bus journey intercity (state route) charge per person; air fare charge for specified routes single journey; journey by motorcycle (Okada) per drop; and water way passenger transport, reported that fares for the categories marginally dropped when compared with what they paid in the preceding month.
According to the statistics agency, the average fare paid by commuters for bus journeys within the city per drop declined by -16.48% from N1,337.80 in September to N1,117.30 in the month under review.
However, it reported that on a year-on-year basis, intra-city bus journeys rose by 75.45% from N636.83 in October 2022.
In another category, the report reflected that average fare paid by commuters for bus journey intercity per drop dropped to N5,885.68 in October, indicating a decrease of 0.53% on a month-on-month basis compared to N5,917.16 in September 2023.
Similarly, the Bureau also reported that on a year-on-year basis, the fare rose by 53.04% from N3,845.81 in October 2022.
A further analysis of the Transport Fare Watch for October this year showed that in air travel, the average fare paid by air passengers for specified routes single journey was N78,778.38 in October 2023, showing a decrease of 0.30% when compared to the fare paid by travellers in the previous month.
As it is with road transport system, the statistics agency reported that on a year-on -year basis, air fare rose by 7.62% from N73,198.65 in October 2022.
It further disclosed that the average transport fare paid on Okada transportation was N507.30 in October 2023, which represented a 21.51% decrease when compared with the N646.29 fare paid by commuters in the preceding month.
As expected, the Bureau indicated in the report that on a year-on-year basis, the average transport fare paid on Okada transportation fare rose by 10.75% when compared with N458.05 paid in the corresponding month of last year.
For water transport (waterway passenger transportation), it reported that the average fare paid in October 2023 decreased to N1,395.68 from N1,406.84, representing a decline of 0.79% on month-on-month basis while on a year-on-year basis, it increased by 38.70% from N1,006.22 paid by water passengers in October 2022.
Meanwhile, the statistics agency had earlier on Tuesday reported that petrol users paid an average retail price of N630.63 in October for a litre of petrol, representing a 222.92% increase over the N195.29 paid for the same quantity in October 2022.
In the ‘Petrol Price Watch for October 2023’ posted on its website, the Bureau stated: “Comparing the average price value with the previous month of September 2023, the average retail price increased by 0.71 per cent from N626.21.
“On state profiles analysis, Zamfara paid the highest average retail price of N659.38 per litre, followed by Gombe and Borno at N658.33 and N657.27, respectively.
“Conversely, Lagos, Oyo, and Delta paid the lowest average retail price at N590.95, N592.19 and N599.38 respectively,’’ it added.
Analysis of the fuel price across the zones showed that the North-East Zone consumers paid the the highest average N644.16 retail price per litre in October, while the South-West buyers paid the lowest price at N616.81 per litre.
This is even as it also reported in its ‘Diesel Price Watch Report for October 2023’ that the average retail price was N1004.98 per litre, representing a 25.45% increase over the N801.09 per litre paid by consumers in the corresponding month of last year.
The Bureau, however, clarified that on a month-on-month basis, the price increased by 12.82 per cent from the N890.80 per litre recorded in September 2023.
A further analysis of the diesel price on state- by-state basis indicated the highest average price in October 2023 was recorded in Plateau at N1,150.00 per litre, followed by Nasarawa at N1,138.00 and Benue at N1,091.67.
Conversely, the report showed that buyers in Rivers State paid the lowest average price per litre at N824.44 per litre followed by their Borno counterparts that bought the commodity at N827.27 and Kebbi State’s at N845.00 per litre.
The analysis on zone-by-zone basis showed that the North-Central consumers paid the highest price of N1090.69 per litre in the month under review compared to their North-East counterparts that paid the lowest price at N947.32 per litre.
