Escalating petrol prices driven by the Middle East war, and persistent regional insurgency have combined to drive the cost of rams to unprecedented heights across Nigeria ahead of the annual Eid al-Adha celebrations. 

This sudden financial strain has been felt acutely by ordinary citizens because of a dramatic doubling of transport fares and heightened security risks along major northern supply routes. 

At the expansive Kara Market along the Lagos-Ogun border, traders stood in the torrential rain on Friday lamenting incredibly sluggish sales. The market typically receives thousands of animals daily from northern Nigeria, where the bulk of the nation’s livestock is reared. However, buyers walking through the muddy pathways found that prices for preferred sacrificial animals now range from 250,000 Naira to an astonishing 1.2 million Naira, depending on the size.

According to local merchants, comparable animals fetched between 150,000 and 1.0 million Naira during the same period last year. Abdullahi Bukar, a 29-year-old trader who travelled over 1,000 kilometres from northeastern Yobe State, explained that terrorism and corruption are actively ruining the trade. 

“We are always scared when we go to the market to buy livestock because terrorists usually attack the markets where we buy stock,” he said. 

Bukar further noted that illegal toll collections by security officials have worsened the financial burden, stating, “Sometimes people don’t come to the market to sell to us because of fear.”

The logistical nightmare is further aggravated by a monumental surge in fuel costs. Truck drivers are now charging up to 2.7 million Naira to haul livestock from the northeast down to the southern markets, nearly triple the cost recorded in 2025. 

This hyperinflation mirrors the domestic petrol crisis, where prices have jumped from roughly 850 Naira per litre to a historic high of over 1,320 Naira per litre, a massive leap from the 195 Naira rate seen at the start of 2023.

The inflationary squeeze is not unique to Nigeria; a similar supply chain collapse is currently unfolding across West Africa. In Abidjan, the Adjame livestock market in the Ivory Coast is facing severe shortages. 

The Ivorian market relies on Mali and Burkina Faso for 75 per cent of its festive livestock, but recent export bans by Burkina Faso and Niger, coupled with jihadist road blockades in Mali, have choked supplies to half of last year’s levels. 

While West African trade ministers insist that national reserves can cater to all budgets, regional buyers remain stranded between soaring cross-border prices and dwindling local alternatives.

Source: Kuwait Times