Afrigather Frequent hikes within the petrol pump costs have left many Nigerian staff below critical strain.
This comes as frequent will increase in petrol pump costs resulted within the corresponding rise in transportation prices and consuming deep into the pockets of wage earners.
In line with them, whereas transportation prices continued to be on the rise for wage earners, the month-to-month pay cheque has remained fixed in the previous few months.
Many staff now spend near 50 % of their month-to-month salaries on transportation prices, which have continued to surge unabated.
Florence Omoregie, Lagos-based medical personnel, mentioned she now spends a considerable portion of her month-to-month pay on transportation prices to and from the workplace.
Omoregie, who works six days per week, mentioned she now spends over N130,000 month-to-month on transportation alone.
Mentioning that she earns a month-to-month pay of N250,000, she mentioned spending about 48 % of her pay cheque on transportation prices alone leaves the remaining 52 % for different payments together with feeding, lodging, kids’s charges, clothes, and different wants.
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“We wrestle to satisfy up with necessary household wants due to the inflationary strain the place costs of foodstuff and different consumables are accelerating forcing wage earners to finish the month with empty wallets,” she mentioned.
BusinessDay checks present that the Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Firm Restricted has adjusted the pump costs of the premium motor spirit (PMS) for a 3rd time in a single yr.
The state-owned oil firm elevated the pump worth to N998 per litre in Lagos, and N1,030 per litre in Abuja whereas some states promote as a lot as N1,200 per litre.
Earlier in September, the NNPC raised the petrol worth from N617 per litre to N897 per litre.
Earlier than the elimination of the subsidy, the value of petrol per litre was beneath N200, however with the value overview in Could 2023 after the inauguration of President Bola Tinubu and the following elimination of the controversial gas subsidy, moved the pump worth to be between N480 and N570 per litre.
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The NNPC additionally elevated gas costs once more in July 2023 to promote between N598 and N617 per litre.
Seun Babatunde, a high advertising and marketing officer, mentioned that the prices of fueling his automotive on a weekly foundation have elevated given the rise within the petrol pump worth.
Prior to now, Babatunde was spending about N65,700 on gasoline weekly, however with the present adjustment in pump costs, he mentioned he spends nothing lower than N100,000 on gas per week, and about N400,000 month-to-month.
In line with him, spending a lot on gas alone takes an enormous chunk of his month-to-month pay and leaves him with inadequate sums to cater to the wants of his household and himself.
He mentioned the excessive prices of fueling have made driving to the workplace each day unattractive to wage earners particularly now that employers of labour are battling to remain above troubled waters as a result of rising financial headwinds within the nation.
“I dwell within the Igando space of Lagos and work within the Victoria Island a part of town. At the moment my each day expansive are almost N8,000, amounting to about N176,000 month-to-month,” mentioned Chinedu Sunday, an HR skilled.
Confirming that transportation is consuming deep into his pockets, Sunday mentioned he and his colleagues are significantly placing up a combat to safe a hybrid working possibility.
“We can’t go to the workplace each day with the current excessive prices of transportation particularly with out wage increment. If I proceed to spend this a lot on transport, I cannot have something left to pay different payments,” he mentioned.
