- Responding in an emergency press conference at the NNPC Towers, Abuja, NNPCL told Nigerians that the move was in the best interest of the company
With the downstream end of the Nigerian petroleum industry going into a frenzy over the unilateral immediate removal of subsidy on petrol and the price jumping to N350 per litre in some areas, he Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has welcomed the pronouncement of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the removal.
The President, in his inaugural address on Monday, had declared an end to the era of subsidy payment, saying the 2023 budget made no provision for it and therefore further payment was no longer justifiable.
Responding in an emergency press conference at the NNPC Towers, Abuja, NNPCL told Nigerians that the move was in the best interest of the company.
According to the NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Mele Kyari, the company has been spending a substantial amount of its profits in the subsidy of the product.
Kyari however said there was no need for panic buying as fuel queues had been noticed in petrol stations across hthe country especially Abuja and Lagos.
He noted that the company had enough product to supply the country for the next 30 days, adding that it was monitoring its supply and distribution networks around the country.
Following the announcement, there has been sharp hike in pump price just as consumers crowded to the petrol stations.
Commercial transporters have also hiked their trip fares across the country in response to the developments.
On his inaugural speech yesterday, the new president, Bola Tinubu, had stated that “petroleum subsidy is gone”.
Checks by Vanguard in Lagos showed that some marketers responded by increasing their prices by about 100 percent to N370 from N185 per litre.
However, few other stations especially the major marketers, sold between N195 and N220 per litre across Lagos and Abuja.
Our findings also showed that some of the petrol stations operators simply shut their filling stations, thus leading to the emergence of long queues.
This is even as depot owners shut their operations, arguing that further clarification was needed to guide activities on the implementation of the new order.