Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — With the new minimum wage pegged at N70,000, recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has revealed a harsh reality for Nigerian households: a worker earning the minimum wage cannot afford more than three full refills of a 12.5kg cylinder of cooking gas in a month.
According to the NBS Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG, Price Watch for April 2025, the average cost of refilling a 12.5kg cylinder rose to N20,268.06, marking a 9.82% month-on-month increase from N18,456.24 in March and a 29.61% surge from N15,637.74 in April 2024.
This means that a worker on the new monthly minimum wage of N70,000 can only afford 3.45 refills of the 12.5kg cylinder, leaving little or nothing for other basic needs such as food, rent, transportation, healthcare, or school fees.
Even the smaller 5kg cylinder is becoming unaffordable for many. The average price of a 5kg refill jumped by 7.69% in April to N7,885.60, from N7,322.49 in March. Year-on-year, the price has spiked by 20.92% from N6,521.58 in April 2024. A minimum wage earner can afford just 8.88 refills of the 5kg cylinder, if cooking gas were the only expense in the household.
The highest LPG prices were recorded in Nigeria’s oil-rich South-South and South-East regions. For the 5kg cylinder, Rivers State topped the chart at N9,103.82, followed by Ebonyi (N8,867.24) and Akwa Ibom (N8,655.59). On the 12.5kg scale, Imo led with N22,938.73, Delta with N22,831.70, and Rivers at N22,759.56.
By zonal breakdown, the South-South recorded the highest average price for refilling both the 5kg (N8,447.78) and the 12.5kg (N21,536.12) cylinders. In contrast, the North-Central recorded the lowest prices, N7,432.22 and N19,330.55 for the 5kg and 12.5kg respectively.
The surging cost of cooking gas comes at a time when inflation continues to erode the purchasing power of Nigerian households, and power supply remains erratic, forcing many to rely on gas for cooking. The reality now is that the average Nigerian worker, even with the newly announced minimum wage, cannot sustain monthly cooking gas needs without making significant compromises.
Experts warn that continued hikes in energy costs could lead to a resurgence in the use of firewood and charcoal, worsening deforestation and health risks associated with indoor smoke.
As prices climb and wages lag behind, Nigerian families are left with difficult choices on how to cook their meals and manage limited incomes.
