{"id":30545,"date":"2026-04-01T14:56:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T12:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=30545"},"modified":"2026-04-01T14:56:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T12:56:33","slug":"fuel-prices-surge-in-africa-as-iran-war-hits-supply","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/fuel-prices-surge-in-africa-as-iran-war-hits-supply\/","title":{"rendered":"Fuel prices surge in Africa as Iran war hits supply"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>African governments have imposed sharp fuel price increases \u200bas the Iran war sends global oil prices surging and threatens to spark inflation across \u200cthe continent.<\/div>\n<div id=\"ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div><\/div>\n<div>African countries import most of their petroleum products, leaving many highly vulnerable to supply disruptions.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>South Africa (SA) , one of the continent&#8217;s largest economies, on Tuesday reduced its fuel levy for one month to help curb further prices rises in April, after \u200btrade unions and business groups pressured the government to intervene.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In Ghana, the National \u200bPetroleum Authority raised mandatory minimum price floors for the April 1\u201315 pricing window, \u2060pushing petrol prices up around 15% to 13.30 Cedis ($1.21) per litre (0.26 US gallon) and diesel up \u200broughly 19% to 17.10 Cedis ($1.24)<\/div>\n<div>\nPresident John Mahama said on Monday that the government was considering steps to cushion \u200bconsumers, including reducing fuel margins and reviewing a recently imposed levy on petroleum products.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He also raised the prospect of a formal supply agreement with Nigeria&#8217;s Dangote refinery to secure alternative sources of refined petroleum. Ghana imports about 70% of its \u200brefined fuel.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In Malawi, the Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) imposed even steeper increases, raising petrol prices by 34% \u200bto 6,672 kwacha ($3.89) per litre and diesel by 35% to 6,687 kwacha from Wednesday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Petrol and diesel jumped by 42% and \u200c87% \u2060between January and March on a free-on-board basis, MERA said, and that suppliers had shifted to fortnightly pricing averages.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Tanzania&#8217;s Energy and Water Utility Regulatory Authority has set a new petrol price cap of 3 820 Shillings ($1.49) per litre in Dar-es-Salaam, up 33% from March. Diesel also rose by 33%.<\/div>\n<div>The regulator \u200bsaid fuel supply remained adequate \u200bto meet the \u2060country&#8217;s needs.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Mauritania on Tuesday raised petrol by 15.3% and diesel by 10%. Economic Affairs Minister Abdallah Ould Souleymane, who compared the situation to the 1973 \u200boil crisis, said the government would offset the impact on vulnerable households \u200bby raising the \u2060minimum wage and providing cash transfers to low-income families.<\/div>\n<div>Gambia increased fuel prices by 18.79% for petrol and 12.20% for diesel on Wednesday, a finance ministry official told <i>Reuters<\/i>.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":20970,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-30545","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"African countries import most of their petroleum products, leaving many highly vulnerable to supply disruptions.","published_date":"","news_description":"African countries import most of their petroleum products, leaving many highly vulnerable to supply disruptions.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30546,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30545\/revisions\/30546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}