CONTRARY to the assurances by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on March 1, 2021 that government had no plans to hike the price of petrol, the federal government yesterday night (Thursday, March 11, 2021) increased the pump price of petrol to N212.61 a litre.
Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) announced late Thursday that the retail price for a litre of petrol for the month will be between N209.61 and N212.61. The ex-depot price, which is the amount sold by fuel depot owners to marketers, will be N206.42, while the landing cost stands at N189.61 per litre, the agency said.
NNPC, which is the sole importer of refined petrol, had assured there was no plan to increase price of the product in February and March. In a statement by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Kennie Obateru, on March 1, 2021, the NNPC stated that contrary to speculations of imminent increase in the price of petrol in the country, there would be no increment in the ex-depot price of petrol in March.
The statement reads in part: “The Corporation was not contemplating any raise in the price of petrol in March in order not to jeopardize ongoing engagements with organized labour and other stakeholders on an acceptable framework that will not expose the ordinary Nigerian to any hardship.”
Although the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had last October caved in to pressures from the federal government and accepted full deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry, it had last week at its virtual meeting threatened to embark on picketing of petrol stations following scarcity of petrol in major cities across the country.
The NLC in its communiqué at the end of the meeting had accused depot owners of causing the scarcity by hoarding the product and raising prices in anticipation of a hike by the government.
The fresh increment is bound to immediately lead to sharp increases in the cost goods and services. Already, social media platforms are agog with lamentations of the possible negative impact the hike is likely to visit on Nigerians in the face of an already galloping inflation.
