Fuel price hike: Abuja restaurateurs adopt new measures

While Nigerians were still contending with the high cost of tomatoes and other food stuff about three weeks ago, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government increased the price of petrol from N86.50 to N145. Prices of food stuff and other goods skyrocketed, worsening an already bad situation. Many people, in a bid to survive the harsh […]

While Nigerians were still contending with the high cost of tomatoes and other food stuff about three weeks ago, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government increased the price of petrol from N86.50 to N145.
Prices of food stuff and other goods skyrocketed, worsening an already bad situation.
Many people, in a bid to survive the harsh economic reality in the expensive capital city, have devised several measures including not using tomatoes at all in their cooking to save cost.
Some restaurant owners in the territory have increased the prices of their food and also reduced the quantity they serve customers. Others have even decided not to bother about tantalising the taste buds of their customers.
Madam Mary, who owns a restaurant around Katampe, said the hike in fuel price and increase in the prices of commodities endanger her business. She said few people now patronise her because she was forced to increase the prices of her dishes.
“The increase in the price of fuel is really affecting my business because things are costly in the market and the transport fare has also increased, so we have to increase the price of food in order to make profit.
“A plate of rice now costs N300 instead of N200 and customers are complaining,” she said.
She said most of her customers have deserted her, adding that many of them failed to understand that there is no way she will continue selling a plate of rice for N200 when the cost of a bag of rice has risen from N9,500 to about N20,000.
Mrs. Florence Adamu, a widow who fries bean cake (akara) at National Hospital Abuja, said she planned to relocate to her village as she could barely break even from the business she has been doing for more than two years.
“After selling and removing the expenses, I was left with nothing as profit; nothing is coming out of the business again. The chairs are all empty because most of my customers have stopped patronising me,” she said.
She lamented that a bottle of groundnut oil which was sold for N200 now costs N400.
But Mrs Adamu is still in Abuja because she is yet to raise her transport fare to the village. 
“House rent, transport fare, electricity bills and fuel price have all increased,” she said, explaining that it is the profit from the akara business that she uses to cater for her children.
In Bwari, food prices have increased without a corresponding increase in quantity and quality of food served. Mrs Christiana Agbo, a restaurant owner in the area, said before the hike in fuel price, she sold a plate of food for N150 but now she sells the same plate for N200. In a bid to recoup her investment as there has been a drastic reduction in the number of her customers, she also slightly reduced the quantity of food.
She also lamented that in the face of epileptic power supply in Bwari, she has to buy fuel for the generator in order to chill her drinks, yet her profit is nothing compared to what she used to make. 
Prince Maxwell, a customer in one of the restaurants, said a plate of pepper soup which was sold for N300 is now N400. He said he was left with no choice but to reduce the number of plates he takes in a week.
While Maxwell was trying to adjust to the new price regime in pepper soup, Bright Solomon had issues with the quantity of food served under the new regime.
He said a plate of food is still sold at the same price but the quantity has reduced.
“Before the fuel price hike, I used to eat a plate of wheat and be full but now I can eat two plates and not be satisfied,” he said.
Mr. Jude Samson, also said he has to eat two plates of food in order to be satisfied due to the reduction in the quantity, adding that a piece of meat is now sold for N100 instead of N50.
He urged the government to reverse the price of fuel or else people will eventually die of hunger because there seems to be no respite in sight.
For Hauwa Idris, the quality of food dished out to customers is a source of concern. She recalled an experience at a restaurant in Utako, “The food was so tasteless that I could not finish it,” she said. “Whatever price they decide to sell their food, they should at least make it good,” she lamented.