Cotonou Sitting on top of a yellow jerry can of fuel, Jeannine
waits for customers on a sidewalk in Benins economic capital
Cotonou, but business is slow.
The motorbikes and cars she normally supplies are no longer
stopping to stock up on her cheap gasoline, which is smuggled in
from neighbouring Nigeria.
Since Nigerias new president Bola Ahmed Tinubu abruptly ended
his countrys long-standing subsidy on petrol two weeks ago, prices
of black market fuel over the border in Benin have also
doubled.
Since this morning, barely five people have stopped, said
Jeanine. Everyone prefers to go to the petrol station now.
Two weeks ago, a litre of Kpayo, the smuggled gasoline sold on
the side of Beninese roads, doubled from 350 to 700 CFA francs (0.5
to 1 euro). That is now higher than the petrol in service stations
at the market price of around 650 CFA a litre.
In Nigeria, fuel prices have also tripled since Tinubu ended the
subsidies, with food, transport and power prices feeling the
knock-on effect.
Ending the subsidy was the first measure taken by Tinubu, who
sees the subsidies as unsustainable financial waste costing the
state billions of dollars a year, and allowing massive smuggling of
subsidised gasoline to neighbouring countries.
Why should we () feed the smugglers and be the Santa Claus of
neighbouring countries, Tinubu said last week, justifying the
decision, which has been unpopular in Nigeria.
For decades, Nigerias low-cost gasoline has been transported
illegally by road to its neighbours, primarily Benin, where it is
resold on the black market by a multitude of informal sellers.
You know, this fuel helps feed thousands of people in Benin,
said Jeannine, a 48-year-old widow with five children, who says she
does not have savings to start a new business.
The scale of the trafficking is such that the price of taxi
fares has almost doubled in Cotonou. In Cameroon, another neighbour
of Nigeria, several motorcycle taxi unions have gone on strike in
protest.
Pray to God
Victorien Assogba Kossi, wearing a yellow shirt like all the
zemidjans (motorbike taxis) of Cotonou, wonders what is wrong with
Nigeria?
Is it because the border is closed? asks the driver who has
never heard of Nigerian subsidies.
Were going to pray to God that it goes down, said the
46-year-old man, who says he was forced to cut corn rations for his
children when business slowed.
A few kilometres away, Nicolas Evedjere is happy enough. The gas
station manager has never sold as much as in recent days.
We had to close this morning, because we had nothing left to
sell, our clients have multiplied by ten, he said smiling while
adding he is sad t...
