The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mr Mele Kyari, said on Tuesday that the increase in the petrol pump price is due to market forces.
Kyari told State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with the Vice-President, Sen. Kassim Shettima, that the jump is being governed by market price.
He said there is no shortage of supply but market force is responsible for this recent development.
Nigerians woke up on Tuesday morning to the sudden increase in pump price from N537/litre to N617/litre showing an additional N80 hike.
The latest development is coming after inflation shot up to 22.79 percent while food inflation rise to 22.25 per cent.
Persecondnews recalls that President Bola Tinubu had after his inauguration re-assured Nigerians that funds generated from the removal of subsidy will be “re-channeled into better investment in public infrastructure, education, health care, and jobs that will materially improve the lives of millions.”
Persecondnews earlier reported that the “rude increase” in pump price might be due to the steepy depreciation of the Naira, the biggest fall in history.
Also, the devaluation of the currency might have triggered the likely increase in the price of petrol in Nigeria.
Prior to the Tinubu administration, the CBN had dictated the exchange rates (official and parallel market).
Barely one week after the appointment of Mr Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi as Acting CBN Governor, Nigeria floated the Naira to allow market forces to determine the exchange rate.
Seven weeks after the removal of subsidy by Tinubu, on Monday oil marketers imported Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), dousing speculations of a likely petrol scarcity.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Mr Farouk Ahmed, had at a stakeholders meeting in Lagos on Monday disclosed that of the 56 oil marketing companies that applied for and obtained licenses, only 10 indicated the ability to import the commodity in the third quarter of 2023, while three already had “landed cargo”.
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