On Monday, 19th of April, 2021, the NNPC GMD, Mele Kyari assured Nigerians that there would be no increase in the ex-depot price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as Petrol in May. Kyari also added that Petroleum Tanker Drivers had suspended their proposed strike after the intervention of NNPC in the impasse between the PTD and the National Association of Road Transport Owners.

“We have given our commitment to both NARTO and PTD that we will resolve the underlining issue between them and come back to the table within a week so that we’ll have a total closure of the dispute,” he said.

However, in the Federal Capital Territory, it was a different story, because the intervention of the NNPC on the proposed strike may have come a little late. Starting on Monday evening, there were reports of long queues in the city, which continued even up to Tuesday afternoon, leading to major traffic in some parts of the city.

At around 2 pm on Tuesday, a trip to fuel stations in the Karu-Jikwoyi area and some other parts of the FCT revealed queues of varying lengths. Fuel stations in the city centres had noticeably long queues as consumers struggled to fill up vehicle tanks and kegs.

A driver, Agbor, spoke to Nairametrics on his ordeal in trying to get petrol.

“I heard the queue was not as bad here as it was in town, so I rushed down to this queue at O-Max but the attendants said they don’t have much fuel for now, and are rationing how much they sell. I had no choice but to buy 10 litres of black market fuel at N4,000.”

At some stations including NNPC filling stations, long queues extended into nearby streets and although vehicular movements were being controlled to provide some semblance of order, the gates were shut in many to prevent mayhem.

The severity of the situation was also quite pronounced at Asokoro. There were long queues at the MRS filling station at AYA junction and A. A Rano station among others. The entry and exit gates were completely shut in many instances with teeming consumers struggling to gain entry. A petrol attendant who asked not to be named told Nairametrics that the situation is temporary and blamed the proposed strike for the inconvenience.

The scarcity situation was not different in Area 11, Garki. The main Total filling station was blocked on all sides and petrol was not being sold from the pumps at press time. The queues had also extended from the station to NNPC HQ. At Conoil, the situation was not much different and as of 2 pm yesterday, fuel was not being sold at the station.

In response to the situation, the federal government, on Tuesday afternoon, gave an update on fixing the fuel scarcity situation as NNPC GMD, Mr Mele Kyari told reporters that fuel loading had commenced in all depots and tankers would soon arrive at various parts of the city to end the scarcity situation.

“These queues will go away. It’s because there was an industrial action by petroleum tanker drivers against their employers, the National Association of Road Transport Owners, around their compensation package.

And those issues were not resolved up till yesterday, until we intervened to ensure that there’s an amicable settlement between the parties so that they will have peace and then normal loading operations will commence from the depots.

As I speak to you at this moment, loading has commenced in all depots in the country, dispatches of trucks are ongoing in all the depots in the country and they have called off the strike for a period of one week to enable us intervene and find a solution.” he said.

It’s been roughly three months since the Central bank restricted Nigeria’s financial institutions from dealing with anything crypto-related, yet recent data suggests its citizens have increasingly found other alternatives to access the world’s flagship crypto.

Data retrieved from Usefultulips (a Bitcoin analytic data provider) shows that the usage of Bitcoin’s peer to peer trading in Nigeria surged by 27% since the CBN directive took effect about 85 days ago, as Nigerians moved about $103 million worth of Bitcoins on just Paxful and LocalBitcoins channels alone.

Bitcoin recorded gains and its suitability in hedging against inflation, coupled with access to other crypto assets that offer more viable options, seem not to have weakened despite the recent N5/$ rebate scheme introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria to encourage Nigerians in the diaspora to use official channels to remit their funds instead of doing so through Cryptocurrencies.

The world’s most popular crypto has rallied by almost 500% since its latest bull run began at the start of Q4 2020, hitting record highs of almost $65,000 this month before pulling back to $55,000 at the time of drafting this report amid strong institutional purchases sighted in emerged markets.

Some market analysts argue that Nigeria’s apex bank’s hold on the country’s financial system has further complicated transactional processes in Africa’s largest economy because Bitcoin still relies heavily on fiat currencies despite being virtual, from pricing its value to how its ownership is being ascertained. In spite of this, the growing interest in Bitcoin has not weakened.

Adding credence to Nigeria’s grip on Bitcoin includes data collated from Google trends, printing that Africa’s largest crypto market, emerged as the first amongst other countries by a long-distance over its interest in Bitcoin with a perfect score of 100%.

Nigeria’s relatively young educated population coupled with its growing internet adoption and smartphone penetration has facilitated Bitcoin to thrive exponentially amid rising inflation that has eroded the savings of many Nigerians.

The borderless feature of Bitcoin also makes payment effortless for Nigerians in addition to offering outrageously low transaction fees.

To give context, many Nigerian banks charge 1–2.5%. For a $1 million offshore transfer, bank charges may go up to $10,000, but with the flagship crypto, transfer of such amount would not exceed $300, even at peak periods.

Consequently, a significant number of Nigerians already pay a premium for accessing the crypto market, as data from Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume, at the time of writing, posted a rate of N607 to 1 USDT with Nigerian banking channels close to the global crypto ecosystem.

Bottom line

A growing number of Nigerians are not giving up on the crypto that has outperformed any Nigerian-based financial asset. They are thus ready to pay a premium to hold on to Crypto irrespective of the Central Bank’s ban.