Staff Writer
Illegal warehouses and daring touts waving funnels at passing motorists have vanished from visibility on the main highway connecting the nation’s capital Niamey to Zinder, the country’s second-largest city in the south.
The reason was severe shortages on Niger’s thriving black market, which was fueled by supplies from neighboring and economically significant Nigeria, one of the top oil producers in the world, where prices tripled after the government ended gasoline subsidies at the end of May.
Residents of Niamey’s suburbs no longer enjoy watching the thrilling chases between customs agents and gasoline-selling street sellers.
According to Adamou Guéraou, the mayor of the commune of Dan-Issa, the smugglers’ entry point into southern Niger, even the endless shuttles of vehicles and motorcycles loaded with gas cans that used to cross the border in front of customs officials “have stopped”.
Before Nigeria’s subsidies ended, a litre of gasoline in Niger would sell for between CFAF 250 and CFAF 275 (€0.38 and €0.40) on the underground market. Today, it costs between 550 FCFA and 700 FCFA, which is more than the 540 FCFA (0.83 euros) it costs at the pump.
Since 2011, Niger has been producing about 20,000 barrels of refined gasoline and diesel per day, but the authorities claim that the epidemic of smuggling is costing it “billions of CFA francs” (a few million euros) in lost revenue.
The few service stations are experiencing a rush due to the present black market shortage, particularly in the sizable regions near to Nigeria like Zinder, Maradi (in the south), Tahoua, and Dosso (in the south-west), which mainly rely on smuggled gasoline.
Impact on militant organizations
Dari Amadou, one of the many Nigerians pacing the alleys of Niamey to sell the petrol that had “fallen off the lorry,” the illegal fuel, said, “The petrol is no longer flowing, we’re screwed.”
Another seller and father of four, Ilia Mahamadou, expresses concern: “The future is bleak; we’re inevitably heading for a complete drying-up of our main source of income.”
A recent report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) noted that fuel smuggling from Nigeria “even finances terrorist groups” through “taxes” levied for transit and storage in areas under their control. This may also have an impact on how armed jihadist groups in the Sahel are funded.
Official sales “doubled” between May and June, according to the Nigerian Oil Ministry. According to Kabirou Zakari, Director General of Hydrocarbons at the Niger Ministry of Oil, they even “tenfold” increased in Zinder, Maradi, and Tahoua.
According to Bio Abdourahamane, head of communications at the Société nigérienne des produits pétroliers (Sonidep), “as black market stocks run out, demand at the pumps increases.”
He assures us that Sonidep has “been foresighted” and is currently able to “meet the high demand” thanks to its own reserves and those of the one refinery located in Zinder.
- Preventing a widespread lack
The president does, however, recognize that “when these reserves run out, we will have to make arrangements: Niger will have to buy gasoline elsewhere or run the Zinder refinery at full capacity to increase production.”
Millions of Nigeriens are already directly impacted by the withdrawal of subsidies in Nigeria.
Transport fare increases have been announced by trade unions, particularly on the roads heading to Nigeria where fuel is becoming more and more limited.
These price hikes also have an impact on freight; for example, in some marketplaces, a 100 kg bag of corn is now 28,000 FCFA (42.6 euros) rather than 24,000 FCFA (36.5 euros).
The cost of the primary modes of transportation in Zinder, motorbike taxis and motor tricycles, has increased by 50 FCFA (0.07 euros).
And according to a local journalist named Daouda Kaka, “business is slowing down” in the border town of N’Konni as a result of the turmoil on its glitzy illicit petrol market.
Abdoul-Wahab Soumana, a socioanthropologist and lecturer at the University of Zinder, says that the gasoline smuggling networks “are a lifeline for thousands of young people: if this activity disappears, some of them could fall into delinquency.”
