Petrol price now N212.61 per litre; Nigerians lament

Petrol nozzle

Governors recommend N380 pump price for petrol

NNPC says no price increase in March but the price is now N212.61 per litre

Michael Adeshina

The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has announced an increase in the retail price of petrol.

In a petrol pricing template published on its website late Thursday, PPPRA said petrol is expected to sell at a lower retail price of N209.61 and at an upper retail price of N212.61. However, Nigerian marketers usually use the upper band for pump price.

According to the document, the landing cost of petrol is N189.61.

The ex-depot price, which is the rate marketers get the product, was fixed at N206.42.

However, the new pricing template came as shocking news to Nigerians because the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) recently ruled out an increase in the ex-depot price of petrol in March saying it had enough stock to last for 40 days.

Kennie Obateru, the NNPC spokesman, had said the decision was taken “in order not to jeopardise ongoing engagements with organised labour and other stakeholders on an acceptable framework that will not expose the ordinary Nigerian to any hardship”.

In February, the NNPC had also allayed fears over the possible increase in the price of petrol, amid concerns about the rising price of crude oil on the global market.

Nigerians have now taken to social media to express their dissatisfaction with the new petrol pricing template published by PPRA.

Check out some of the reactions below:

https://twitter.com/OmoKiikan/status/1370265689408299012

However, it must be noted that Nigeria currently runs a price modulation system where the retail price of petrol is fixed to mirror occurrences in the global market.

In February, Timipre Sylvia, the minister of state for petroleum resources, also advised Nigerians to be ready to bear the pain of higher petrol prices because there was no budget for under-recovery; the term given to the differential between the landing cost and fixed retail price.

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