Nigerians woke up Friday, to a new petrol retail price of N212.61 per liter. This comes 11 days after the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) promised there will not be a price hike.
It previously sold at between N160 and N170 per liter.
The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) announced the new price for March late Thursday. It said the retail price for a liter of petrol for the month will be between N209.61 and N212.61.
According to PPPRA, the ex-depot price will be N206.42, while the landing cost stands at N189.61 per liter. The ex-depot price is the amount fuel depot owners used to sell to marketers.
Although the government said it deregulated the downstream sector and put an end to subsidies, it continues to raise the prices of the product. Even with four refineries owned and managed by the government, the country still relies on imports for local consumption.
The state-owned NNPC regulates the petroleum sector and is the sole importer of refined petrol.
Nigerians had engaged in panic-buying since February on suspicion of plans to increase petrol price. The partial scarcity of the product that lingered for weeks created the suspicion. However, NNPC assured there was no such plan for February and March.
The NNPC said on March 1, that contrary to speculations of an imminent increase in the price of petrol in the country, there would be no increment in the ex-depot price of petrol in March.
“The Corporation was not contemplating any raise in the price of petrol in March in order not to jeopardize ongoing engagements with organized labor and other stakeholders on an acceptable framework that will not expose the ordinary Nigerian to any hardship,” the NNPC statement said.
Seatimes Africa gathered that NNPC has always used this strategy each time it wants to increase price since 2016.
There are indications that more price increases are imminent. Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari said Nigeria’s petrol price is still low compared to its neighbors.
Citing the example of neighbouring Niger Republic, Kyari said a liter of petrol in a Total filling station in Niamey, the capital, sold for about N464.
He said about 80 per cent of petroleum products consumed in West Africa are smuggled from Nigeria.
Meanwhile, Nigerians have started to feel the impact of the price hike of petrol. Homes, businesses, transportation are mainly dependent on petrol due to lack of adequate electricity supply.
