Cooking gas scarcity hits Bamenda, prices skyrocket
By Drusilla Mbehni
“If it can affect me this way as a worker, I wonder what the students will be going through”. A worker in Bamenda laments as the prices of cooking gas have become a call for concern.
The price for cooking gas in Bamenda, has left many mouths grumbling and some sharing challenges they are facing during this period of gas scarcity.
The increase in the price of gas has taken a gradual process “ two weeks ago I went to buy cooking gas and it was sold to me at FCFA 8500, an additional FCFA500. And now, it is being sold at FCFA 15000 in some places and FCFA 17000 in other areas.” a consumer laments.
Another gas user further narrates how the increase in the prices of cooking gas has affected her expenditure. “My monthly budget has been altered. Having to add up to FCFA5000 to get gas which is still the same quantity means I have to spend less on another basic need, or sacrifice a need completely.”
Another buyer said, “I heard other people complaining of the increase in the price of cooking gas until I went to get mine. It was being sold at FCFA18000, so I didn’t buy because I didn’t have such an amount. This increase has affected me so much so that, I prefer to eat at a restaurant than buy gas and cook.”
With the increment in price of this basic necessity in homes, many have resulted to diverse substitutes. “I have turned to using electric boilers for water, charcoal pot and stove for cooking” explained one.
Another, hit by this situation explains how he copes with the situation. “I eat in the restaurant, then at home, I eat more of cornflakes and I heat water using an electric heater”.
Students in Bambili are not left out as a student who seeks anonymity explains his ordeal. “I was cooking fried rice in the evening and gas got finished so I had to finish cooking at a neighbour’s. The next day, I went out looking for gas in all stores in Bambili but couldn’t find any. The lone available store that had it told me it is FCFA17000. I asked why and was told about the gas scarcity and increase in price. I had to stay for four days without cooking. Finally, I got to town and got cooking gas at FCFA14000 and it was not same gas I have been using.”
While substituting cooking gas with stoves, charcoal pots and eating in restaurants, cooking gas users wish that “biogas can be better integrated into the sector of renewable energy, given its sustainability” and that the prices drop.
