The federal government has quietly increased the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit popularly known as fuel from N179 to N194 per litre.
Checks by our reporter showed that fuel now sells between N194 and N270 in Abuja and Niger State, including in government owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
A fuel attendant in one of the NNPCL’s retail outlets in the Gwarinpa area of Abuja said the order came from the top management of the company on Wednesday night.
“We got the directive to sell fuel at N194/litre from today (Thursday) from our manager,” the source who doesn’t want to be named told our reporter.
Curiously, NNPCL has denied responsibility for the latest increment, saying it is the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority that now has the mandate for fuel price regulation. NNPCL said it is now an operator and not regulator.
The President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has witnessed significant fuel price increment between 2015 when he took over government and now.
Nigeria has had nationwide fuel scarcity for over a year amidst controversial subsidy regime. Although the government had pegged fuel price at N179/litre, most fuel stations had been selling the product for between N180 and N300, depending on the location.
The adhoc committee of National Economic Council (NEC) had in January 2022 recommended that the price of petrol be increased to N302 per litre, a call that was widely rebuffed.
Before that, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) had also recommended N385 per litre in May 2021.
