Despite the economic recession, consumers of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in Borno, Oyo and Ebonyi paid N164.09, N161, and N156.47 per litre respectively in January 2017.
This is above the regulated price of N145 per litre, as specified by the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).
Besides, a litre of Kerosene sold at N647.62 in Sokoto; Niger, N625.00 and Edo, N560.19 in the same month.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) January report released yesterday, listed states with the highest average price of petrol to include Borno, N164.09; Oyo, N161.00 and Ebonyi, 156.47.
According to NBS, states with the lowest average price of petrol were Kogi, N144.67; Ekiti and Imo, (N144.64).
The agency said Ebonyi State has the highest average price in the south east region for January 2017 while Imo State has the least average price.
For kerosene, the average price per litre paid by consumers increased from N231.85 in December to N433.84 in January 2017, representing a 93.19 per cent month-on-month increase.
This is despite assurance from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), that it has adopted an elaborate measures to sustain supply of petrol, diesel, and kerosene in the country.
According to the acting NNPC Group Managing Director, Saidu Mohammed, NNPC would transmit the full list of marketers involved in off-taking diesel and kerosene to the Department of State Services (DSS) for appropriate follow-up to forestall possibility of stakeholders engaging in foul play.
Mohammed said the move to provide additional petrol cargoes of 37,000 tonnes each was to give further comfort and stability to the robust petrol sufficiency nationwide.
Dwelling on the high cost of petrol in the country, an analyst, Ifeanyi Izeze blamed the high cost of petrol and kerosene to the high exchange rate and the marketers inability to source for forex to import product.
He stated: “How many independent marketers can afford to keep up with this exchange rate? Moreover, foreign banks have cancelled all credit lines issued to marketers because of unpaid debts owed them as a result of unexplainable jack-ups in the nation’s foreign exchange rates. Of course how do you expect them to pay back the debts owe banks when the monies were borrowed under a N200 to one dollar forex regime and now the dollar exchanges for N400 or more? And to worsen the matter, most of these marketers are also heavily owed by the government in the subsidy scheme or rather scam.’’
“The question is: why has it become so hard for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to take a second look at its forex policy that has strangulated almost every aspect of the socio-economic life of this nation? Are our laws/policies made for the betterment of the citizens of this country or to punish them?”
