The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) backed President Bola Tinubu’s scrapping of petrol subsidy with immediate effect.
Persecondnews reports that as a result of the announcement at the presidential inauguration on Monday, long queues have resurfaced in Abuja and across the country with marketers who still have petrol selling their old stock at between N300 and N400.
But the NNPCL has assured Nigerians that it has sufficient supply of petroleum products, particularly premium motor spirit, and warned against panic buying by motorists and other users of the commodity.
Lauding President Tinubu’s bold step, the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of NNPC Limited, Malam Mele Kyari, said it is a welcome decision to end subsidy payment on petrol (Premium Motor Spirits (PMS).
He told a news conference in Abuja that the cost of subsidy has been a huge burden on the continued operations of the oil company.
“We have been funding the subsidy from the cash flow of the NNPC since government is unable to defray the costs of subsidy that is due to the company.
“We believe that this will free resources for the NNPC to continue to do the great work that this company will do for our country.
“It will also allows us to continue to function as a very commercial entity that will work on this development,” Persecondnews quotes Kyari as saying.
“Secondly, we would like to assure Nigerians that we have sufficient supply of petroleum product, particularly premium motor spirit in our country and there is no reason to panic.
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“We understand people will be scared of potential changes to price of petrol, but that is not enough for people to rush to fuel stations to buy more than what they need,” the NNPCL boss said.
Kyari said the company is monitoring all the distribution networks and support facilities, adding “we believe that normalcy will be restored very soon.”
The former President Muhammadu Buhari administration had claimed to have budgeted about N3.4 trillion for subsidy in 2023.
Ex-Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said had said Africa’s biggest economy spent 2.91 trillion naira ($7 billion) towards a petrol subsidy between January and September 2022, state-owned firm NNPC said, a cost the government has blamed for dwindling public finances.
Buhari signed the 2023 budget of 21.83 trillion naira ($49 billion) into law on Tuesday after lawmakers increased the size by 6.4% and raised the oil price assumption.
“Petrol subsidy will remain up to mid-2023 based on the 18-month extension announced early 2022,” Ahmed said.
Buhari said in October 2022 that the country would stop the petrol subsidy in 2023, when he steps down from office.
On April 5, the Federal Government then said it had secured $800 million from the World Bank, and requested Senate’s approval for the disbursement of the funds as part of its post-subsidy palliative plans.
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