Domestic Gas: Scarcity, Price Surge Hit Buea

I t is place common to see people walking various neighbourhoods of Buea in search of domestic gas for the past few weeks. Consumers tend to spend hours moving from one gas refill station to another with several outlets either out of stock at the moment or operating with limi­ ted supplies. The scarcity of the pre­ cious commodity has caused an in­ crease in the prices of the available gas bottles placed on the road by street vendors. Cameroon Tribune observed that the gas scarcity differs from one brand to another. The most widely used brand, SCTM is completely out of stock, pushing households, res­ taurant owners and other users to switch to alternative brands. This has also resulted to a surge in de­ mand of the other brands and a consequent price hike with a 12kg cylinder of gas costing between FCFA 12,000, and FCFA 20,000, far above the government homologa­ ted price of FCFA 6,500. Unanswered questions linger across the streets as no one knows the rea­ sons for the acute shortage. The Sales Manager of one of the brands in Buea, Stanley Nara Ekame, said gas is generally controlled by the State and it is a problem of supply from where they get their product. He also confirmed that their firm has been experiencing a scarcity for the past two weeks. Chanceline Mantah, a meat pie ven­ dor, said the scarcity has tremen­ dously affected the price of gas. She said she usually purchased a cylin­ der of gas at FCFA 6,500-6,800 but lamented that the same...