PRICE CONTROL AND THE HAULAGE INDUSTRY IN NIGERIA

 

 

No economy can survives without a seamless transportation of goods and services. It is also true that when the cost of transportation goes up then the cost of goods and services also goes up. It is therefore safe to say that transportation has a direct relationship to the cost of goods and services.

In Nigeria, when the cost of transportation goes up (mostly due to fuel scarcity) it is certain that the cost of goods and services will also go up. Ironically, if the price of fuel comes down the cost of transportation reluctantly comes down hence the price of goods remains unchanged. This is not only peculiar to the haulage sector alone but to all other sector of the Nigerian economy.

 We all know that transportation is the “engine” of any economy. It makes up over 80% of what drives an any economy, and the haulage industry takes a huge share of that mobility activities as far as Nigeria is concerned. 

It is therefore very important that there must be price control for the transportation industry especially the haulage sector. The price template should be a collaborative engagement between the government and major stakeholders within the haulage industry, the template should stipulate the specifics of what percentage increase/decrease should occur once the cost of fuel increases/decreases considering the fact that the diesel and petroleum industry is practically under deregulation. The government should also go a step further by ensuring that subsidy is granted to trucks who intend to transport agricultural produce to the cities across the country. Subsidy do not necessarily mean giving out money, it could come in the form of reduction in the fee of registration charges/levies, decrease in the cost of fueling from government owned filling stations etc etc. This will go a long way to stabilizing the pricing for goods/services (especially food), give the haulage investor confidence to invest more and help manufacturing companies to project their figures. 

It is my firm believe that even though we are in another worse recession in 36 years which is due primarily to the Covid19 pandemic and partially the #EndSars protest, we will come out stronger if we begin to look into these direction.

Thanks for the read as always.