9th October, 2023
By Ismail Abdulaziz
The Federal Government is no longer paying subsidy on Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol, the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), Malam Mele Kyari said on Monday.
Kyari, who spoke with State House Correspondents on Monday in Abuja, said that contrary to insinuations on social media, the federal government was no longer paying subsidy to any person or group for bringing petroleum products into the country.
“No subsidy whatsoever. We are recovering our full cost from the products that we import. We sell to the market.
“We understand why marketers are unable to import. We hope that they begin to do so very quickly and these are some of the interventions government is making. There is no subsidy,’’ he said.
Kyari further stated that the pockets of low queues witnessed across some states recently were due to bad roads that had made transporters to divert the product to other routes.
“We have seen in very few states pockets of very low queues. This is not unconnected with the road situation and that’s why we’re seeing some blockades on our roads.
“Moving the products from the southern depots into the northern part of the country takes them much longer time now than it used to be.
“They have to re-route their trucks around many locations for them to be able to reach their destinations and that created delays and some supply gaps. But, that has been filled and we do not see any of such problems again.
“Secondly, because of the full deregulation that we have in this sector, marketers are now competing amongst themselves,” he said.
The NNPCL group managing director also said that some of the queues were caused by the preference of customers to patronise filling stations that offered low prices.
“You must have noticed that some fuel stations will reduce their prices by N2 or N3. So customers will naturally run to the places where you have that reduction in prices and probably create panic.
“This is because those who don’t know why they are doing it will think that there’s something happening or that there’s an ominous sign of scarcity,’’ he said.
According to him, there are over 1.4 billion litres of petrol available for local consumption, both on the seas and on land, adding that there is no cause for alarm.
Kyari explained that market forces were now playing out and that marketers were competing for the product and how to satisfy their customers as well.
‘’There are few issues we’re engaging them to resolve, alongside other agencies of government, particularly critical issues around access to foreign exchange.
“And as you all know, government is doing so much to ensure supply of forex into the market. We know that this FX markets will stabilise the current I&E window is around 770.
“And we know that those inputs from government will crystalise and they will come to an equilibrium position in the FX market and this is the dream of this country,’’ he said.
Kyari assured marketers of a stable forex and a situation where the prices of the product would align with the prices of other commodities.