Nigeria fuel subsidy removal hits small businesses

(15 Jun 2023) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: ASSOCIATED PRESS Lagos - 14 June 2023 1. Various of Temitope Ishola in the market buying items 2. Close-up of bell peppers being packed into a bag 3. Mid of Temitope Ishola buying onions from a trader 4. Mid of a vegetable being sliced 5. SOUNDBITE (English) Temitope Ishola, Chef and Restaurant Owner: “The removal of subsidy has been a nightmare, especially for small business owners like mine, it has affected our purchasing power like everything has gone up, fuel affected everything. From pepper to beef, even transportation like going to the market, coming back, before you would use like 500 Naira ($) to go to the market, but after the fuel subsidy removal now, it’s like 2,000 Naira ($), like over 200 percent increase all round in everything.” 6. Various of Temitope Ishola in her kitchen cooking 7. SOUNDBITE (English) Temitope Ishola, Chef and Restaurant Owner: “The biggest fear for me as a small business owner after the fuel subsidy removal is the fear of closing down my business because if every time I go to the market, the person selling to me is complaining that the increment is due to fuel subsidy removal and my customers are also saying I should not increase my price then how do I make my money? I also need to make some profit. So, I might have to just close down and maybe go back to the bank or even japa (relocate) to another country.” 8. Mid of Temitope Ishola in the kitchen scooping rice from a pot into a cooler 9. various of Temitope Ishola selling meal to a customer 10. Various of customer eating his meal 11. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Uchenna, Barista: “There is a significant change in the way I eat in the restaurant now because I have to calculate everything, I spend more than the way I used to do. So, if like before I do come mostly every day to get and all that to get my food but now, I think twice.” 12. Wide of Michael Uchenna and his friend chatting 13. Wide exterior of Temitope Ishola’s restaurant and her staff trying to switch on the generator STORYLINE: Businesses in Nigeria are facing hardship after Nigerian President Bola Tinubu scrapped a government subsidy that helped reduce the price of petrol, resulting in massive cost increases across the West African nation. The impact of the subsidy’s removal on May 29 extended beyond the immediate squeeze on small-scale entrepreneurs. As prices soared, consumers had less money in their pockets to spend. A lot of Nigerians still think the government is yet to realize the severity of the situation. Young business has been struggling to stay afloat due to high purchasing power of perishable and non-perishable items. Chef and restaurant owner Temitope Ishola says she is worried that she’ll have to close down her business, as prices everywhere have shot up as a result. “Every time I go to the market, the person selling to me is complaining that the increment is due to fuel subsidy removal and my customers are also saying I should not increase my price then how do I make my money?“ she said. Tinubu announced the removal of the decades-long subsidy moments after his presidential inauguration, which ended the estimated to cost the Nigerian government an billion naira ($39.8 million) daily in 2022. He did not set an implementation date though the immediate past government had set out to end the initiative by June 30. The bad state of Nigeria’s oil refineries means Africa’s top oil producer depends on imported refined petroleum products. AP video by Dan Ikpoyi =========================================================== Find out more about AP Archive: Twitter: Facebook: ​​ Instagram: You can license this story through AP Archive: