Following the full deregulation of the petroleum Sector in Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has once again increased the pump price of fuel to N617 per litre across its outlets.
The company silently adjusted the pump price on Tuesday and has yet to offer any explanation as to the factors that stimulated the current price of the product.
Recall, that on May 31 this year, shortly after the inauguration of President Bola Tinubu, the NNPCL adjusted the pump price of petrol, across its retail outlets from N195/per litre to N537/per litre.
President Tinubu, shortly after his Inauguration as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Monday, May 29, 2023, announced the removal of subsidy on petroleum products.
He argued that the subsidy regime increasingly favoured the rich more than the poor, therefore, the funds would be re-channeled to better the lives of millions of Nigerians.
Although the subsidy removal was met with stiff opposition from Labour unions across the country, demanding for palliatives to cushion the effects of the removal, nothing much has been achieved in that regard.
However, just recently, President Tinubu disclosed that his administration would soon begin the disbursement of N8,000 monthly palliative to about 12 million extreme poor and vulnerable households in the country to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal.
Amidst the criticism of the federal government’s decision, the House of Representatives approved the N500 billion palliative request meant to cushion the effects of the fuel subsidy removal on Nigerians.
While Nigerians are trying to recover from the earlier shocks, the NNPC Limited today, July 18, 2023, announced a jack-up of the price of petrol from the N537/per litre announced in May to an all-time high of N617/per litre.
NNPCL as at press time refused to offer any meaningful explanation for the increase, however, the high cost of crude at the international market, recent unified exchange rate, and high transportation costs could be some of the reasons for the increase.
The government agency responsible for regulating Price of petroleum is Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), but has been stripped of the right to regulate the price with the removal of the subsidy.
Consequently, the petrol price is now determined by market forces, and could fluctuate from time to time.
What was however, not right about the current sudden increase, was that there was no stakeholders’ engagement by the regulator (NMDPRA) to justify the increase as being done in other deregulated sectors of the economy.
