Amidst Nigeria’s soaring cost of living and inflation, the Association of Table Water Producers has warned that the price of a sachet of water may soon reach 100 Naira.
The association expressed its concern during a press conference held on Wednesday, highlighting the escalating production expenses that are “crippling their business and pushing them into significant debt.”
Currently, a sachet of water sells for 50 Naira in Awka, the capital of Anambra State, located in Southeast Nigeria, as well as in various other locations.
Across many cities, water producers are vending a bag of sachet water for 400 Naira, while retailers are pricing it between 500 and 550 Naira per bag.
During the press briefing, a representative of the association cautioned, “Sachet water is currently priced at 50 Naira, and if precautions are not taken, it may rise to 100 Naira. At our end, we are at a loss.
The production costs, which stood at 1,100 Naira per kilogram for materials as of last December, have surged to between 3,600 and 3,700 Naira for the same kilogram of nylon.”
“We are no more costing the cost of treatment. We don’t put this into our cost. What we do now is just the materials, and the frequency with which the nylon producers increase the price, and they don’t increase it with maybe N20,000 or N30,000. They go as far as N550,000 in one increment, and this increment can come three times within one week.”
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She said, “It is difficult for us to continue to increase the price of our water. That is where our fear is coming from, because if an ordinary Nigerian cannot afford sachet water, I don’t know where we are going to.
“We are dying. Every water producer is more or less funding the business from outside sources or borrowing money. Many banks don’t give water producers loans because they know that we might not be able to repay.
“We want Nigerians to bear with us. The way things are going, water might go to N100 per sachet, which we don’t want. We don’t want Nigerians to buy water more than N20 per sachet. When we were buying diesel N220, water was N10 but now, we are buying diesel for N1,700.”
On Tuesday, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) initiated a nationwide demonstration in response to the exorbitant cost of living and widespread hardship experienced across the country.
