The price of smuggled fuel from neighboring Nigeria, also called zoua-zoua, has just fallen. In the streets of the town of Garoua, Northern region, a liter of zoua-zoua went from 800 FCFA to 350 FCFA this week.
Raphaël Welyang, mototaxi driver in Garoua, points out that this drop does not only concern fuel. But all contraband from Nigeria. This situation is not unrelated to the new devaluation of the naira, the Nigerian currency against the American dollar. Abuja speaks of a 31% fall in the value of the naira. A “historic” devaluation in the opinion of experts. Results of the races, Cameroonian traffickers buy the liter of zoua-zoua on the other side of the border at around 125 FCFA per liter, a drop of almost 40% of the price charged at the beginning of this year, if we are to believe confidences.
The new price of zoua-zoua, mainly consumed by motorcycle taxi drivers, has started to pull down the price of transport. According to Raphaël Welyang, the price of transport on the axis between Garoua and the town of Pitoa, which he practices every day, increased from 500 FCFA to 350 FCFA. And he admits that prices have also started to change in the main city of the Northern region. For the moment, the drop in prices is timid in Maroua in the Far North region. But soon, everything suggests that the liter of zoua-zoua in Maroua will also sell for 350 FCFA as in Garoua. In Ngaoundéré, in the Adamaoua region, it is much more complicated because of customs checks.