As Petrol Prices Increase Nationwide, Abia, Kebbi, Taraba Residents Paid Highest in August

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Residents of Taraba, Kebbi, and Abia states paid highest amounts in petrol prices in August.

An analysis of a report by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that residents of the three states bought petrol at the most expensive prices, as Nigerians wake up to the reality of increased pump prices.

According to the NBS’ premium motor spirit (petrol) price watch report for August, the average price paid by consumers last month increased to N148.78 per litre from N143.63 in July.

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In percentage terms, the average price paid by consumers increased by 2.26 percent year-on-year, and by 3.59 per cent month-on-month.

Taraba residents bough petrol at N153.67, Kebbi residents paid N153.65 and the average price of petrol in Abia state was put N152.00.

Today in Nigeria, petrol is sold for between N159 and N160 in major urban centers across the country.

Meanwhile, the average price of kerosene also increased in August compared to July.

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NBS said the average price per litre paid by consumers for increased by 3.28 percent month-on-month and by 7.41 percent year-on-year to N346.53 in August 2020 from N335.54 in July 2020.

Residents of Ebonyi, Enugu and Borno paid the highest for kerosene at an average price of N397.62, N395.87, and N393.61 per litre, respectively.

Bayelsa (N257.78), Zamfara (N285.56) and Kebbi (N292.26) were the states with the lowest average price per litre of kerosene within the period.

In Context:
In the first week of September, the ex-depot price of premium motor spirit (PMS) was increased to N147.67 per litre.The Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) announced the new price shortly after it announced an initial increment to N151.56 per litre from the erstwhile price of N138.62 per litre.

The PPMC is a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

The ex-depot price is the price at which the product is sold to marketers at the depots.

In Nigeria, depot owners and major marketers buy the petrol directly from the PPMC. They in turn store in their own depots and then sell to other marketers and filling station owners.

These station owners then directly sell to Nigerians at retail prices.

Earlier in the year, Nigerian policy makers announced a deregulation policy which will see petrol being sold at prevailing market prices.

Ideally, the government should no longer subsidize petrol but months after the policy kicked off, the PPPRA continued to determine market prices.

But in September, the government did not release any price template, saying it would no longer determine prices as they will be subject to market forces.

Despite owning three moribund refineries that continue to gulp a large chunk of the nation’s resources through routine Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) efforts, Nigeria currently imports almost all of her petrol and the NNPC is in charge of this.

Analysts have raised concerns over the deregulation policy being implemented, as numerous questions are being raised around issues of transparency and accountability.

Nevertheless, Nigerians have since embraced the new reality of buying petrol at high prices, amid other asphyxiating economic conditions thrown up by increased electricity tariff, incessant municipal taxes, among others.