President Bola Tinubu has disclosed that the nation spends N2tn month-to-month to import petrol and diesel.
Tinubu acknowledged this throughout his latest nationwide broadcast to Nigerians.
According to the President, regardless of Nigeria’s plentiful oil and gasoline sources, his administration met a rustic that was dependent solely on oil, neglecting its gasoline sources whereas subsidising the price of gasoline.
Tinubu eliminated gasoline subsidies on his first day in workplace, and this led to a rise within the pump value of petrol from about N200 per litre in May 2023 to about N700 in the intervening time.
As a consequence, the President famous that his administration had invested in Compressed Natural Gas to vary the narrative.
“Fellow Nigerians, we’re a rustic blessed with each oil and gasoline sources, however we met a rustic that had been dependent solely on oil-based petrol, neglecting its gasoline sources to energy the economic system. We had been additionally utilizing our hard-earned international trade to pay for and subsidise its use.
“To address this, we immediately launched our Compressed Natural Gas Initiative, to power our transportation economy and bring costs down. This will save over N2tn a month, be used to import PMS and AGO and free up our resources for more investment in healthcare and education,” Tinubu acknowledged.
He reiterated that his administration can be distributing a million kits of extraordinarily low or no price to industrial car homeowners transporting folks and items and who presently eat 80 per cent of the imported petrol and diesel.
“We have started the distribution of conversion kits and the setting up of conversion centres across the country in conjunction with the private sector. We believe that this CNG initiative will reduce transportation costs by approximately 60 per cent and help to curb inflation,” Tinubu disclosed.
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The PUNCH studies that whereas licensed people have been importing diesel into Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited stays the only importer of petrol below the present administration.
Despite being the most important oil producer in Africa, Nigeria is dependent upon imported petroleum merchandise as a result of low refining capability.
In May, the President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, stated Nigeria would not import any gasoline the second his refinery commenced the manufacturing of petrol.
However, the Dangote refinery has been battling with crude challenges as worldwide oil firms reportedly refused to provide crude to the power.
Officials of the Dangote refinery acknowledged that the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority had insisted on gasoline importation, granting licences to folks to import soiled gasoline into Nigeria.
Reacting, the NMDPRA Chief Executive, Farouk Ahmed, denied the allegations, stating that it was the Dangote diesel that had the next sulphur content material than the imported ones.
The NMDPRA boss warned that Nigeria can’t rely closely on the Dangote refinery for its gasoline provide, saying the importation of gasoline would proceed.
According to Ahmed, the refinery had requested the regulator cease giving import licences to different entrepreneurs to be the one gasoline provider in Nigeria, saying he refused to grant the request.
Meanwhile, Tinubu waded into the problem and ordered the availability of crude to Dangote in native forex, saying that might save the nation over $660m month-to-month.