Imported petrol is landing in Nigeria at N565 a litre, a top marketing body says, leaving a margin of up to N52 between the landing cost and the new retail price that went into effect Tuesday, causing more hardship for Nigerians.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association (IPMAN) said as of Wednesday, petrol reached the Nigerian port at N565 a litre, exclusive of other costs along the supply chain.
The main importer of petrol, the government-owned NNPC Ltd, increased the pump price of petrol on Tuesday from N537 to N617, citing “market realities”. In Lagos, the product sold at N588 a litre.
It is the second increase of petrol price since President Bola Tinubu took office on May 29 and scrapped petrol subsidy that helped keep the price at N185 a litre.
“Even at N617, it’s still not reflective of the real cost. As of today, the landing cost in Nigeria is N565,” Yakubu Suleiman, IPMAN’s national public relations officer, said Wednesday on Arise TV Morning Show.
The group chief executive of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari, said the new rates “is the meaning of making sure that the market regulates itself so that prices will go up and sometimes they will come down also.”
– Removing subsidy
In late May, Mr Tinubu removed fuel subsidy that had cost the government over N4 trillion in 2022. The new administration also devalued the naira last month in an attempt to liberalize the currency market.
The subsidy decision initially sent the price of petrol up by nearly 200% and helped lift monthly inflation to its highest level in seven years, causing widespread hardship in a country with more than 100 people in poverty.
Annual inflation rose to a near 18-year high of 22.8% in June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday.
The new petrol price is bound to make goods and services even more expensive.
Read More
- NNPC blames ‘market realities’ for new petrol price of N617
- NNPC increases price of petrol to N617
- Nigeria monthly inflation at 7-year high after fuel subsidy removal
– No details on how N617 is reached
IPMAN official Mr Suleiman did not give details of the additional costs they add to arrive at the final retail price of petrol. He said the margin is jointly arrived at by traders and are details he could not immediately disclose.
“The importers’ (decision) is not a one-man affair. When the product comes out, we have to sit down to negotiate. It is not something I can just come out in public to say,” he said.
He said marketers were not making more money with the higher prices.
“To be frank, it’s just speculation. If any marketer feels he’s happy on the profit he’s making, maybe he’s just deceiving you,” he said.
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