Following the removal of subsidy on premium motor spirit (PMS) otherwise known as Petrol, the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited on Wednesday morning has officially changed its pump price.
The approval is contained in a schedule obtained by DAILY GIST detailing the new prices that would be charged by the NNPC retail outlets across the country
The NNPC in playing it’s energy security role is the sole supplier of petrol in Nigeria currently and it is now expected that other marketers will follow the NNPC prices and adjust their own pump price with effect from today.
According to the price template, the price of petrol has now been adjusted upward from between N189 to N194 to N537 per litre in Abuja and other North-Central States such as Nasarawa, Plateau, Kwara, Kogi, Benue and Niger.
For Lagos and other South West States such as Oyo, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo and Osun, the price of PMS was raised from between N184 and N189 per litre to between N488 and N500 per litre.
In the South East where states such as Abia, Imo, Anambra, Enugu and Ebonyi, the price was increase from between N184 and N189 per litre to N515 to N520.
Similarly, in the North -West, the price of PMS was raised from N194 per litre to N540 while for the North-East, it moved from N199 to N550 per litre.
The Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the NNPC, Mr. Mele Kyari during a press briefing shortly after the pronouncement by President Tinubu said the subsidy burden which has been placed on the NNPC Limited is affecting the company’s cashflow and threatening its sustainability plans due to the federal government’s inability to refund the subsidy claims.
He added that NNPC as a limited liability company cannot continue to bear the burden of subsidy on behalf of the federation if it must deliver dividends to its shareholders and be profitable.
This change by the national oil company is providing clarity around prices after the removal of the controversial fuel subsidy which cost almost $10 billion annually.
NNPC is the sole supplier of petrol in Nigeria today and it is now expected that other marketers will take a queue from the NNPC prices and adjust their own pump price today.
Analysts say since NNPC has effected different pump prices for different cities, this may mean that not only has subsidy gone but also that the wasteful price equalization mechanism which ensured petrol had the same official price all over Nigeria was also gone.
It is unclear what FX exchange rate NNPC has used to arrive at its pump price but it could be around N600/$.
President Bola Tinubu who resumed at Aso Rock on Tuesday afternoon held a long meeting with the CGEO of NNPC and CBN governor Godwin Emefiele on the vexed matters of fuel subsidy and the multiple foreign exchange rates.
In his inaugural speech on Monday, the President, Bola Tinubu said since the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari, did not budget for fuel subsidies in the second half of the year, the payment is gone for good.
He noted that the CBN had been mandated to abrogate the multiple exchange rates regime.
In a statement issued by the state house, It stated that Tinubu’s declaration that “subsidy is gone” is neither a new development nor an action of his new administration.
The statement said President Tinubu was merely communicating the status quo, considering that the previous administration’s budget for fuel subsidy was planned and approved to last for only the first half of the year.
