Authors : A.S. Oyekale and J.W. Udia
Abstract: Deregulation of the Nigeria`s oil sector has resulted into increase in pump prices of petroleum products. Consequently, purchasing power of income has reduced as prices of goods and commodities increased. This study analyzed the changes in expenses incurred by households on energy products, food and transportation and coping strategies used. Data were collected with simple random sampling and analyzed using descriptive statistics and z-test for statistical significance. Results showed that while expenses on kerosene significantly increased (p<0.01) the number of liters of kerosene significantly decreased (p<0.01). Expenses on most carbohydrate foods significantly increased in absolute term (p<0.05) while there were significant reductions in consumption of some protein and vitamin rich foods (p<0.05). Coping strategy of fetching fuel wood was used by 29.63% while 21.30% buy food on credit. It was recommended that to minimize adverse nutritional and environmental effects of fuel price hike, government should assist in boosting economic activities of rural people and ensuring that research into safe utilization of solar energy for cooking is encouraged.
A.S. Oyekale and J.W. Udia , 2007. Changing Rural Households` Expenditures and Coping Strategies under Deregulated Fuel Price Regime in Nigeria: A Micro-Evidence from Ikene Local Government . Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences, 4: 102-106.