Yaounde: fuel shortage persists, taxi drivers, bike riders increase fare
The shortage of fuel in major filling stations across the nation’s political capital Yaounde since January 9th has resulted in some inhabitants being stranded on major roads unable to get taxis to their destinations. Others complain some taxi drivers and motorists have used the opportunity to increase the price per drop in some areas around town.
In major road junctions and streets this morning of January 11, there are endless queues of persons waiting to get into taxis and mini-buses that connect the center of the city to the suburbs.
“I have been standing here for about an hour unable to get a taxi. The mad rush is real. It was the same thing yesterday I stood for more than an hour just to get a taxi from Jouvance here to Hotel de Ville, I had to make two drops which are quite expensive,” Mervelle Mbelle, a city dweller told CNA.
Others say motorists and taxi drivers use the opportunity to increase prices and when you don’t propose a good price higher than the normal price you get to stand on the road for a very long time.
“If I want to get to work early I need to propose a higher price if not I’m not going to be carried. When you propose the usual price they don’t even look at you. I had to pay 500 frs yesterday from Jouvance to post central to get to work only because I wanted to go early, the drivers complain there is no fuel,” a source explained.
In an effort to purchase fuel, long queues of vehicles, crowds of motorbike taxis, and other individuals holding cans in hand can be seen lining up at gas stations. Many need Super but it is reported that most filling stations do not have it as it is low in supply.
Faced with the new fuel shortage affecting the city of Yaounde, the ministry of trade has provided a provisional measure to ration the sale at 5,000 FCFA per person.
However, the Minister of water and energy, Gaston Eloundou Essomba has blamed the shortage on the end-of-year holidays that have impacted operations at the international level. He says the ships have not yet been authorized to unload on the due date because of these holidays. He also noted that Yaounde was supplied with over 1700 tonnes of gasoil on January 10th and hopes the situation regularizes in the days ahead.
It should be recalled that the shortage occurs six months after the country experienced severe shortage. Back then, the minister of water and energy, Gaston Eloundou Essomba, explained that the disruptions recorded in the fuel supply were “mainly due to the large envelope of the pump price subsidy that must be mobilized in real time to ensure imports of petroleum products”.
It is the third time in less than six months that the country has experienced a fuel shortage. In October, authorities took measures to supply the local market and over 4,000 metric tonnes of gas arrived by a 118m long tanker at the Port of Douala-Bonaberi on October 19th 2022.
According to reports, in 2022, nearly FCFA 700 billion was spent by the Treasury as fuel subsidies to ensure the regular supply of domestic market petroleum products.
