Daily Watch – Inflation rises again, Aviation fuel scarcity bites
17th May 2016
- Nigeria’s CPI for April showed that prices of goods and services surged for the third consecutive month to 13.7 percent just as food price index soared to 13.2 per cent from March. Latest report by the NBS said that the headline index (year-on-year) increased by roughly 0.9 percent points from 12.8 percent rates recorded in March, while food sub-index jumped by 0.4 percent points from rates recorded in March. The higher rate of increase relative to the previous month reflected in faster increases across all divisions, except the restaurants and hotels division, which rose at a slower pace for the third consecutive month. The rise in inflation in April followed the lingering structural constraints associated with higher electricity rates, household kerosene prices, the negative impact of higher premium motor spirit, popularly called petrol, prices and vehicle spare parts. The NBS said the pressures from the above items as well as other imported items continued to have ripple effects across many divisions that contributed to the hike in core inflation rate.
- The Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, has declared that Lagos is now officially an oil producing state following the discovery of crude oil by Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Company in Badagry. Ambode claimed that by the provision of Section 162 Sub-Section 2 of the Nigeria Constitution, Lagos has become an oil producing State. The Group Managing Director of YFPC, Tunde Folawiyo, said the company spent about $400 million dollars in making the find. He said the oil well has the capacity to produce at least 12,000 barrels per day, with a possibility to increase to 25,000 to 50,000 barrels per day in the near future.
- A coalition of Sokoto State Youth Associations has given the Kaduna Electricity Company a five-day ultimatum to address the blackout and skewed power distribution which they alleged favoured the KADECO owners’ state, Kebbi. The company had recently posted on its Facebook account, the amount of power allocated to the company and how it was shared in its catchment area which includes Kaduna, Kebbi, Zamfara and Sokoto States. Based on their formula, Kaduna was given 147MW, Kebbi, the perceived owners’ state got 47MW, Zamfara got 21MW, while Sokoto received less than 16MW.
- The scarcity of aviation fuel, has worsened as a number of domestic airlines cancelled their evening flights out of Lagos and Abuja, while others simply rescheduled them. Among the airlines that cancelled their flights were Aero Contractors, Medview and First Nation, while Dana Air rescheduled it flights. As a result, many passengers, who were due to travel from the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal 2, had their plans disrupted. Stakeholders in the industry had recently estimated that the scarcity of aviation fuel had led to 50 percent reduction of the carrying capacities of the local airlines.