Obasanjo laments impact of rising diesel cost on his fish business

Former Nigerian president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has lamented the high cost of diesel and the unfavourable exchange rate, claiming that these factors had a negative impact on his fish business.

Obasanjo, who is a farmer, stated this on Tuesday, during a media briefing in his home in Abeokuta, Ogun State, during the Congress of the South-west Fish Farmers Price Sustainability Group Congress.

The former president of Nigeria argued that rising diesel prices and the value of the dollar would eventually drive Nigerian fish producers out of business.

He said “The current price of diesel at 800 (naira) per litre, production of a kilogramme of fish is N1,400. In order to make very marginal profit, the farmers can’t sell less than N1,500 as anything short of that amounts to outright loss.”

“The price of diesel has gone high because the management of this country is not what it should be.

“And it is as simple as that. Then, what will happen is that, particularly those of us who have to use a bit of diesel in producing fish, we will completely go bankrupt, and when that happens, Nigerians will still have to eat fish.

“Fish production will be out of reach and then, people will be producing fish outside Nigeria and be dumping it here. And you will go jobless, poor and indigent. So, what do we have to do? To come together…we want to sustain fish production and we must be able to take care of those who are going to eat and those of us who are producing.”

Read also: Peter Obi, Baba-Ahmed visit Obasanjo to rally support ahead of 2023 election

Diesel which fuels the power generating sets in most production facilities, and the trucks used for the supply and distribution of goods, has seen a price increase of around 18%. The pump price of a litre of diesel jumped from N700 to N850 recently. And this is expected to rise to N1500 in the next few weeks if the current trend persists.

For the record, the pump price for diesel was N288.1/ litre, N317.45/ litre, N314.25/ litre, N243.92/ litre, N269.89/ litre in Lagos, the South East, South West, North West, and North East regions, respectively, as at January 2022.

The increases have raised the operating cost to unbearable levels considering that self-generated electricity, especially through diesel-powered sources, accounts for 30 per cent of local manufacturers’ production.

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