…Nigerians to be ready to buy petrol at N400 per litre after subsidy
Recently, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) after considering the recent fuel scarcity coupled with naira crunch has decided to reveal to Nigerians that fuel prices in Nigeria would get to be sold between N360 and N400 per litre after the removal of petroleum subsidy by the government.
According to the President of PENGASSAN, Festus Osifo who disclosed when speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the association’s National Executive Council meeting (NEC) held in Abuja on Tuesday.
Mr Osifo spoke days after marketers and other groups in the downstream sector of the Nigerian petroleum industry said subsidy removal will push fuel prices to N750 per litre.
He remarked that, in January, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, said that it will be more appropriate for the government to begin the implementation of its fuel subsidy policy in the second quarter of the year.
The minister noted that the country needs to exit the fuel subsidy regime because it is a very significant contributory factor to revenue loss.
He also noted that the functional local refineries will not only make fuel affordable but also create jobs for Nigerians inorder to ease the sufferings.
He said, “While maintaining our support for the full deregulation of the sector and the significant milestone achieved in this regard, we counsel that efforts be made to increase the pace of the current rehabilitation exercise of refineries and get them back on track in due time.”
He therefore, maintained that the incoming administration must address the currency swap as well as fuel scarcity across the country while noting that palliatives must also be made available to Nigerians to mitigate the impact of the removal of petroleum subsidy.