The Impact of Kerosene Price Subsidy Removal on Households' Cooking Energy Consumption in Nigeria: Implications for National Development
Cajetan Akujobi1
Citation : Cajetan Akujobi, The Impact of Kerosene Price Subsidy Removal on Households' Cooking Energy Consumption in Nigeria: Implications for National Development International Journal of Managerial Studies and Research 2015 , 3(5) : 50-54
The study aimed to determine the effect of kerosene price subsidy removal on deforestation in Nigeria using primary data from 200 respondents randomly selected from Ibadan and Owerri. The descriptively analysed data showed that fuel wood and kerosene are the most popular cooking fuel used in Nigerian households. Since the removal of subsidy on kerosene price the number of households using firewood and charcoal as cooking fuel increased by about 6 percent, and the quantity of firewood and charcoal used increased by about 40 percent and 15 percent respectively. Households with large family size and low income households were mostly affected by the price subsidy removal. Some farmers and some government workers were found to have reduced their quantity of kerosene usage and shifted to using more firewood as firewood business is now emerging lucrative among some unemployed youth. This is found to have a serious implication for deforestation and constitute an impediment to national development. Availability and affordability are the most popular reason for choice of cooking energy in Nigeria. The government should consider making more volumes of kerosene available at affordable prices to Nigerians by reactivating existing refineries and subsidise cooking gas to make it affordable to majority of Nigerian to reduce pressures on the forest