The Federal Government yesterday engaged the Labour over the new petrol price regime.
The meeting was held at the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), with representatives from both government and Labour in attendance.
It was learnt that the meeting discussed the consequential adjustment of the new minimum wage, and the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) initiative, among others.
Government representatives at the meeting were National Security Adviser (NSA) Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Minister of Labour Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Wale Edun, Minister of Information Mohammed Idris, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil) Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas) Ekperikpe Ekpo and representatives of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL).
Labour representatives included Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Joe Ajaero, Deputy President Kabiru Ado Sani, General Secretary Emma Ugboaja, Deputy President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) Dr. Tommy Okon, Secretary General Nuhu Toro and President of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), also a Deputy President of the NLC.
Also present were Benjamin Anthony, Vice President of NLC, and Comrade Deborah Yusuf, Deputy Women leader of NLC.
NLC had decried the hike in the price of petrol, demanding a reversal and accusing the government of betrayal.
Idris, who addressed reporters after the meeting, described it as ‘normal engagement with labour to interact on national issues’.
He said the government does not believe there must be tension before an interaction.
“The government is always desirous of engaging with labour. This is one of such engagements.
“We’ll continue to interact with them. We don’t wait until there is tension about anything before we engage Labour,” he said.
His Budget and Economic Planning counterpart, Abubakar Bagudu, assured Nigerians that the country’s economy is on the path to recovery, despite current challenges.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja during World Egg Day, Secretary of PAN in Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Musa Hakeem, said the farmgate price of eggs, which previously stood at N5,500, is expected to rise to N6,000 and N6,500 as a result of increased fuel costs.
He said with fuel price hike, soaring cost of poultry feed, devaluation of naira, and more have led to shutdown of poultry farms.
These challenges, he said, have contributed to rising egg prices, which are expected to climb further.
“I commend poultry farmers, particularly those in FCT, despite challenges posed by naira redesign, fuel subsidy removal, foreign exchange fluctuations, and increase in minimum wage. These have led to higher transportation costs, increased feed prices, and rising expenses,” Hakeem said.
He noted that these challenges have forced many poultry out of business.
Hakeem, however, praised Federal Government and FCT Ministry for establishment of Ministry of Livestock and Nutrition Department.
I travelled home, the penultimate weekend, to bury my step-sister, Monica Chukwujimma Amalu who had died at 90 years. Sister Monica, a retired nurse, was a privileged child, who was sent to Britain, in 1962 to train as a nurse on the income of our father, a senior civil servant, with the Nigerian Prisons. As I said in my tribute to her, she grew up, mgba ezi di na ukwu ukwa, a common saying amongst my people, depicting, when life was more predictable.
Clearly, life has become improbable. Considering that I was travelling with three of my family members, and needed to stop at the Ministry of Education, in Awka, Anambra State, to deliver 100 copies of a book, I wrote with Emeka Agbayi in 2008, titled, Service Above Self, featuring the state governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, amongst others, I decided to hire a Toyota Sienna car. To my amazement, I was charged a whopping N260,000. With the high cost of fuel as the chief culprit, the driver told me that the cost of a single one-way ticket, on that vehicle was N45,000.
On getting to Enugu, I discovered that the price of fuel was about N1,500 a litre, unless you queued in the few and scarce, NNPC fuel stations. And so, for a journey of about 45 minutes, to my village, Amofia, Ogwofia-Owa, I paid a staggering N30,000, to hire a cab. With electricity, a scare commodity, in my village, we had to buy about 200 litres of fuel, for the four days, we spent, to power the two generators, needed to light up the environment and supply energy to the disc jockeys that played to entertain.
Even with the environment lit up, we still had to higher the local vigilante and the Civil Defence, at huge costs, to provide security, during the ceremonies, to avoid ‘had I known’ as my brother-in-law, Frank Offor, warned against. Feeling the pinch, I was interested in knowing how the people were coping with the fuel price hikes and the attendant high cost of transportation. Sooner than later, two of our family friends showed up, at Offor’s expansive compound in Enugu, to expose the survival tactics, for civil servants and business men.
One, an architect and a contractor, came to park his Toyota pick-up van, in the compound. After exchanging pleasantries, he told me, the keke that will drop him off at the park to enter a public transport to Owerri, where he has a project, was waiting outside the gate. He explained that he dares not travel to Owerri with his van, considering the high cost of fuel. I was told, he has a vehicle parked in Owerri, for his local runs.
Shortly after, another family friend, a lecturer at the Institute of Management and Technology, IMT, came in a keke, to drop off his little girl, at my sister’s private school. Again, while exchanging pleasantries with me, he explained that his car was parked at home. He said, that it was economically suicidal, to do the school runs, with his private car, considering the cost of fuel. He noted that it was cheaper, to hire a keke, which consumes a lot lesser fuel, than his car bought when fuel price was more reasonable.
He said some time, akin to Chinua Achebe’s assertion in, Things Fall Apart that Eneke the bird, ‘says that since men have learnt to shoot without missing, he has learned to fly without perching’. I also noticed that many have resorted to the use of solar panels, to get electricity. I am not talking of the bigtime solar panels, but the small single panels that light up single flood lights. Many of such solar lights are now common in my village and in the compounds in Enugu.
But a lot more needs to be done, by the governments to help the people deal with the challenges posed by the removal of fuel subsidy and the attendant hike in the transportation costs and the inflationary pressures arising from that and the deregulation of the Naira. One of the low hanging fruits should be the conversion of cars and buses to use CNG, which the federal government is championing. This writer thinks the state governments should show more interest in that programme, than many of them are currently doing.
Proactive governors, like the governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah, should show interest in that programme. The first place to start is to train technicians to carry out the conversion. The state government can raise an army of interested technicians and pay for them to be trained at state cost, to nurture the programme in the state. Also, private entrepreneurs can also be encouraged to go into the conversion training programme, by making soft loans available to them, to access the training and acquire necessary equipment.
While I was in Enugu, I didn’t notice the CNG powered commercial buses, similar to what the Ogun State government is doing. The Enugu State governor, I hope will show interest in procuring CNG buses if he has not already done that. If the reputation that is following the CNG buses in terms of lower costs of fuel is true, then this writer urges every state governor to show interest in that programme to help reduce the inflationary pressures on the cost of goods and services, especially transportation.
Should the states join forces with the federal government, in driving the CNG programme, it will have greater impact on inflation, which thankfully, is beginning to dip, since July. While according to the Consumer Price Index, inflation, has dipped to 32.15% in August, from the 33.40% recorded in July 2024, the cost of food, is still too high for the majority of Nigerians. Food inflation, which stands at 37.52%, still makes mincemeat of the income of the average Nigerian. And, one sure way, to further deal inflation a blow, is to dip the cost of transportation.
Coming back to Lagos, my wife and I, had to pay N140,000, out of the entire cost of putting the Sienna on the road, as there were not enough Lagos bound passengers, to fill the vehicle. To get some passengers, my driver had to make a deal with another driver, who had only three passengers, not reaching Lagos. In the words of the driver, the era of putting your vehicle on the road, with less than full passengers, were over, otherwise the cost of fuel will swallow the entire earnings.
One imagines what savings, this writer would have made, if there is a train running from Lagos to Enugu, as against the exorbitant costs of travelling by road. Of course, the cost of travelling by air, in our case, paying for return tickets, was fearfully prohibitive.
By the time the Department of State Services released Nigeria Labour Congress President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, last Monday evening September 9, he had become contrite, remorseful and perhaps ashamed of his uninformed action. The labour leader was invited twice by the secret police and twice he failed to honour the invitation. As I learnt, during the second invitation, Ajaero even told the new DSS boss who telephoned him that he was traveling out of the country and could only honour the invitation on his return. What an insufferable arrogance! However, unbeknownst to him, at the behest of the police and Office of the National Security Adviser, which have been investigating him, the DSS had placed him on a ‘Watch list.’
For failing to honour the invitation, the SSS operatives promptly arrested him at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja on Monday morning as he arrived to board his flight to London. He was whisked to DSS office in Abuja where the police interrogated him for his alleged infractions, which remain yet unstated. It is instructive to state that the DSS, according to official sources, has nothing against Ajaero. However, the service arrested him so he can respond to the allegations levelled against him by the police. That interrogation was said to have been conducted within the DSS premises with his lawyer in attendance.
When the interrogation was over and Ajaero was released on bail, the DSS took him home in a well-fortified security vehicle early enough on Monday night. He was then asked to break the news of his release to his associates by himself. Unknown to many, the NLC president himself delayed the announcement of his release till almost midnight that same Monday for reasons known to him.
I have gone to this length to narrate Ajaero’s encounter with the DSS based on the information I garnered from sources close to the service in order to demonstrate that the NLC president was not picked up at the airport for no unjustifiable reason, as many may want us to believe and that he was not in any way manhandled by the service during the period of the arrest.
On the contrary, he was reportedly treated with respect and decorum, and his rights fully respected. The DSS explained to him that not honouring the invitation extended to him was a grave error on his part, which he allegedly admitted and reportedly apologised.
With that background, it is evident that the United Kingdom Trade Union Congress, which intervened in the matter and attacked the present administration for alleged intolerance and violation of Ajaero’s fundamental human rights without justification, did not understand the issues involved and what actually transpired. The TUC-UK is one organisation lawyers would label a meddlesome interloper in this matter. And it was just fit and appropriate that the Presidency had given the association the response it rightly deserved.
For crying out loud, why would a labour leader deserving of that name or more precisely, why would an Ajaero who is the NLC president not honour a lawful invitation by a legal entity like the Nigeria Police?
It would appear Ajaero deliberately acted the way he did in order to further heat up the polity that has already become tense over the fuel situation or to befuddle the matter of his arrest in a bid to embarrass the government.
I will return to the matter of Premium Motor Spirit shortly.
Just like Ajaero would want it to act, the NLC behaved in a way typical of the union. Without interrogating what actually happened, the Congress slammed the Federal Government with a midnight deadline to order Ajaero’s release, otherwise government should be ready for a showdown.
Affiliate organisations of the Labour Union were placed on Red Alert, following an emergency meeting of the National Administrative Council of the NLC in Abuja in reaction to the arrest. They were directed to mobilise for a confrontation with the government if the NLC president was not released by midnight.
Why is labour so recalcitrant and inflexible, why does the union always resort to protest, in spite of the present government’s demonstration of good faith with them? Why is labour always dangling the strike option at the snap of their fingers?
The other day and despite the then-ongoing negotiations with the government and Organised Private Sector, labour still called for a strike over the National Minimum Wage, disrupting business activities in some parts of the country, particularly aviation operations in Lagos and Abuja. In the end, after its ineffective industrial action, labour returned to the negotiation table with the government and OPS during which a new N70,000 National Minimum Wage was agreed upon. The two unions even got an icing on the cake, as President Bola Tinubu directed a three-yearly review of the NMW as opposed to the existing every five years review.
The President Tinubu administration has shown good faith, trust in labour, and belief in what a harmonious relationship the government and labour unions can contribute to nation building and a stable polity. It is high time labour reciprocated this appropriately.
On the matter of the fuel situation, I mean the recent increase in pump price of PMS, which Ajaero obviously wanted to load up with his arrest to create another confusion, there is also a need for some clarifications. In the wake of the hike in the pump price of petrol from N617 to N897 per litre, while calling for an immediate reversal of the increase, the NLC had claimed the hike was a breach of the agreement it reached with the government during the minimum wage negotiations where it came down from its demand of N250,000 to N70,000. In a statement signed by Comrade Ajaero, Labour claimed it had an understanding with the government that there would be no further increase based on which it agreed to the N70,000 NMW. However, those who attended the negotiations and witnessed as the negotiating parties reached an agreement said there was no such understanding. I believe Ajaero and the other labour leaders know the true position of things and are merely engaging in subterfuge.
Truth is the recent hike was a difficult pill for government to swallow. President Bola Tinubu recently said In Beijing, China while addressing the Nigerian Community there that if there was a better option, the government would have taken it. The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited had long informed the government it was not covering its cost, arguing that with the unification of the multiple exchange rates that earlier existed, the company now required more money for the foreign exchange it would need for fuel importation. NNPCL argued that the matter was not helped by the high debt it owed suppliers. According to the corporation, in order to guarantee fuel availability, there is a need for an increase that would be close to the cost of making the products available. And because the PMS price in Nigeria is about the lowest within the sub-region, smuggling walked on all fours as the products is being smuggled across the border.
We can argue that government needs to double up its efforts in checking smuggling, and that would be right. However, fuel availability must be guaranteed in the interim while efforts are being made to drive down the cost including warding off smuggling.
Availability is expected to be further assured with Dangote Refinery now coming on stream.
Indeed, the announcement on Friday that the Federal Government had finally reached an agreement with Dangote Refinery on the commercial terms for the supply of crude oil to the refinery and the off-take of its PMS is heart-warming. Following the agreement, the government announced that the distribution of petrol from the refinery would commence on Monday September 16 with an initial 25 million litres per day. Under the agreement, NNPCL will be the sole off-taker of petrol from Dangote Refinery while diesel from the facility will be sold directly to any interested marketer.
And as a buffer for the gradual reduction in the demand for PMS, the government is also speeding up efforts on the Compressed Natural Gas Initiative. Already, the government has commenced the distribution of CNG conversion kits and cylinders to transport unions in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger states under a plan aimed at converting one million commercial vehicles free across the country in the next two years. As opposed to PMS that is around N897 or N900 per litre, CNG costs between N230 and N300 per kilogram.
In my view, the Federal Government must now begin the implementation of the NMW and get the Organised Private Sector to also toe the same line to stem labour’s seeming uneasiness. Arrears on the NMW must also be paid to win over the hearts of workers. This is also where the governors must immediately come in as well. The increasing revenue now going to them should come handy in implementing the new minimum wage.
Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun has approved two days off duty per week for officers on Grade Level 01-14, while officers on Grade Level 15-17 are to maintain one day off duty per week.
A statement by the Head of Service, Mr. Kehinde Onasanya, said the gesture was aimed at further easing the burden on the workers, ‘’who now face more challenges commuting to work.’’
He said the gesture was expected to translate to substantial relief, while also enhancing service delivery through a more motivated and energised workforce.
Onasanya described Governor Abiodun as highly committed to the welfare of workers.
He urged accounting officers to implement the policy in their MDAs by working out modalities to ensure the day off system is scheduled in such a way that service delivery is not compromised.
Onasanya said Governor Abiodun had in July introduced the one day off work policy for all grade levels, adding that the current extension to two days off work for GL 01-14 was to further reduce the financial burden on workers and increase productivity.
With the rumour mill agog with the news of the planned fuel pump price hike by the members of the independent petroleum marketers few days ago, there are clear and present dangers of a return to arbitrary price fixing by the coming weeks, reports Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf.
Amidst the joy and excitement of the festivities, not a few Nigerians were taken aback by the news of the proposed price hike of petroleum from its current N600 to N1, 200, a remarkable 100 percent increase.
The news sparked immediate reactions, with many expressing concern about the impact on their already-strained budgets.
“My daily transport already eats up a quarter of my salary,” Adeola Owoye, a staff in one of Nigeria’s commercial banks said on X, formally known as Twitter. “If this hike happens, then what? Walking to work isn’t even an option with the distance and safety concerns.”
In the view of Obinna Umelo, a dispatch rider in Lagos, lamented what he described as the dire consequences the planned pump price will cause him, most especially given the fact that his business depended on mobility.
“There is no way I will be able to cope with the new price hike, at least not in the immediate or foreseeable period,” he stressed.
“I don’t see how I’m going to cope with my daily hustle as a dispatch rider because already things are pretty difficult. This new price will compound the already worse situation.”
It would be recalled that similar speculations that the government had partly reintroduced petrol subsidy, unannounced, to keep the pump price at N617 given the continued fall in the value of naira against the dollar and the price of crude oil in the international market.
For instance, Festus Osifo, the national president of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Festus Osifo, on October 6, insisted that the Nigerian government had restored the subsidy on petrol, despite the official government policy of ending the subsidy regime.
Osifo, who is also the president of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), one of Nigeria’s two largest workers union coalitions, while featuring on a Channels Television programme, Politics Today, said due to the cost of crude oil in the international market and the exchange rate, the government still pays subsidies on petrol.
“The government has to come clean. In reality today, there is a subsidy because as of when the earlier price was determined, the price of crude in the international market was somewhere around less than $80 a barrel. But today, it has moved to about $93/94 per barrel for Brent crude. So, because it has moved, then the price (of petrol) also needed to move,” Osifo said in October.
“My daily transport already eats up a quarter of my salary,” Adeola Owoye, a staff in one of Nigeria’s commercial banks said on X, formally known as Twitter. “If this hike happens, then what? Walking to work isn’t even an option with the distance and safety concerns.”
Nigerians throw shades at rumour mill
Expectedly, the news drew a lot of spats from concerned Nigerians, who argued that the people were already overstretched and totally impoverished, as such would be unable to endure any more belt-tightening measure of any kind, least of all hike in pump price.
Former federal lawmaker, Shehu Sani; has warned those peddling the rumours of premium motor spirit being sold for N1200 to stop causing unnecessary tension in the country.
Recall that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, and fuel marketers under the aegis of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria clashed last Tuesday over the removal of subsidy on petrol.
The depreciation of the naira against the US dollar at both the official and the parallel market has not been helpful too.
For this reason, oil marketers said Premium Motor Spirit was increasing in recent times,
However, the NNPC maintained that it was recovering its full cost on the importation of petrol.
There are rumours that oil marketers are fighting for the PMS to sell for N1,200/litre in a free market mainly because of the crash of the naira against the dollar.
Sani, who represented Kaduna Central Senatorial district in the 8th Assembly, further stressed that people should stop spreading the rumours since nothing is official from both the NNPCL and the marketers.
“Neither the oil marketers nor the NNPCL proposed any increase of pump price to N1200 per litre,” he wrote on X.
“Those peddling this rumour should stop so as not to cause unnecessary panic, disruptions and further hardships and suffering.”
However, some Nigerians are calling on the government to be proactive in sensitising its citizens.
Also, Nigerian netizens on X (previously Twitter) have raised concern about the Nigerian government’s alleged plan to raise petrol pump prices to N1,200 per litre across the country.
There has been widespread speculation that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) will soon announce new hikes in fuel pump prices across the country.
However, X users say that worse economic hardship looms if the government and the NNPCL should increase the fuel price as speculated.
A user, identified as Yanju said that previous experiences had shown that implementation of any policies in Nigeria always started like a rumour.
He said, “This was how they increased it to 600 without much fuss. They’ll do it again and again. And whenever we’re about to complain, they’ll throw in the ‘refineries will soon start working card.’”
“You can’t tell me that the Nigerian economy doesn’t encourage fraud. How do you expect a guy earning even 200k a month to live with Fuel 1200? New year, New problems,” another user, DREYLO said.
According to Stes_Giddy, any further increment of fuel prices by President Bola Tinubu’s administration would affect the country’s small-scale economic sector.
He said, “Guy why do you dare go far? 200k ke? There are sales girls and boys who earn less than 50k and they pay rent and transport to the island every day. As a business owner, I sell Chandeliers, I have to run gen from morning to night to display samples to customers.”
Nick’s Pizza said pegging the pump price at N1,200 should be considered a lack of empathy from the government on the current struggles Nigerians are currently facing to survive.
He said, “You even mentioned 200k, it’s only about 40% (according to stats) who earn that amount or close in this country. A lot of people and family men earn less than that in a month. How does the government expect them to survive.”
“If NNPC can’t manage the petroleum affair of the nation, can they just scrape them off or just privatise the ministry so those who have something to offer can take over? Wtf is fuel 1200 in 2024? Do these people really understand the level of hardship Nigerians are going through,” another user, Omotayo said.
NNPCL rules out fuel price hike
As the rumour mill gained traction, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) in a statement ruled out an increase in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol.
According to the media minder of the oil corporation, Mr. Olufemi Soneye, he urged Nigerians to disregard rumours of an increase in the pump price of petrol.
He assured Nigerians that there were no plans for an upward review of the price of petrol.
The spokesman, however, said the company did not have any dispute with IPMAN over any subsidy payment on petrol contrary to the claim.
“Motorists nationwide are advised against engaging in panic buying as there is presently ample availability of petrol across the country,” he added.
IPMAN also recants
Amid rumours of an impending scarcity and increase in the cost of the PMS, which has triggered panic buying amongst Nigerians, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has warned Nigerians against panic-buying and storing of petrol at home.
In a monitored TV programme on Channels Television on Thursday, Okanlawon Olanrewaju, the Public Relations Officer of IPMAN, while making an appearance clarified that fuel marketers have no intentions to raise fuel prices.
“As far as the independent marketers are concerned, we don’t have plans or plans to increase fuel pump price.
“There is no basis for that for now. There is no signal from NNPC that we should increase. So, we cannot do that on our own except NNPC comes out and says we are going to increase pump price. On our own, there is nothing like that.
“I want to use this opportunity to appeal to the public to stop panic buying. There is nothing like that (fuel price increment). It is just a rumour,” he said.
Hope rising for local oil processing
Stakeholders in the Downstream Petroleum sub-sector have assured Nigerians of a significant reduction in the pump price of fuel, indicating optimism that the ongoing crises in the energy sector will soon be resolved.
They specifically anticipate a drop in petrol prices with the expected resumption of operations at the Port Harcourt Refinery in Rivers State in January.
Kenneth Korie, the National President and Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of NOGASA, along with Dr. Billy Harry, his PETROAN counterpart, made these assurances separately after the inauguration of the Akwa Ibom State chapters of the two industry regulatory bodies at Ibom Icon Hotel in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, recently.
Expressing confidence, they stated that they are 100 per cent sure that the prices of petroleum products will decrease when the refineries become operational again in January.
Korie attributed the current hike in fuel prices to importation and added that the rehabilitation and upgrade of the refineries in Port Harcourt, Kaduna, and Warri are crucial for lowering product prices.
“Yes, of course, there is hope. The GMD NNPC has given assurance concerning that before the National Assembly. In all my talks, I have been hammering the Port Harcourt Refinery to come online,” Korie said.
“I’m 100% sure that there will be a serious reduction in the price of petroleum products as soon as our four refineries, including the Dangote Refinery, come up. But we should not expect the price to come down like it was before, because of the high exchange rate, but it will be a bit lower than what it is now.”
While commenting on the state of the economy in the last few months, Peter Sunday Adebola, Managing Director, Edgefield Capital Management Limited, an investment-driven firm, said the government is tackling the problem besetting the country headlong despite the challenges it is confronting.
According to him, the current economic managers have shown the propensity to turn things around in the system judging by the raft of policy pronouncements they have made in recent times.
Citing the revamped Port Harcourt Refinery, he said, “If Port Harcourt Refinery I and II is working, then that means we would import less fuel and if we do that it is going to enhance our foreign exchange earnings capacity. Then again, another thing is the Dangote Refinery has also come on stream too. It has received some crude oil for prospecting.”
Refining capacity, he reiterated, “Will increase the pressure on our reserves and increase in food production if people can go back to their farms. Then we are going to see the kind of hope that this administration is promising us.”
According to the forecast by BMI, a Fitch Solutions company, Nigeria’s real GDP growth will increase modestly to 2.9% in 2024, up from 2.4% in 2023.
The BMI is particularly upbeat about the possibility of the country making a lot of gains from the production at Dangote Refinery.
“Given that Nigeria will produce 1.62mn b/d of crude in 2024, there will still be a significant surplus available for export. Furthermore, long-standing contracts with international buyers and the need to maintain relationships with key trading partners – including the US, EU, and India – will mean that large volumes of crude will continue to be sold on the international market, preventing a downturn in overall exports. All told, we forecast that growth in exports of goods and services will soften from 19.3% in 2023 to 6.7% in 2024.
“Real GDP, % chg 2.4 2.9 Economic growth in Nigeria will improve modestly in 2024, primarily due to the operational start of the Dangote refinery. That said, Nigeria will continue to underperform by both Sub-Saharan Africa and emerging market standards as a result of high inflation, tight financial conditions, and fiscal constraints.”
Nigeria amongst countries with cheapest PMS
Nigeria has been ranked as the sixth country with the cheapest price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol in Africa and the 22nd globally.
This is according to a new report released recently, 2024 has shown.
Nigeria’s average petrol price stands at $0.722 equivalent to N657 according to the report.
The report by Global Petrol Prices titled Gasoline Prices; Octane-95 listed Libya as the country with the cheapest petrol price in Africa at $0.031 (N28.35).
Other African countries with cheap petrol prices include Algeria, $0.342 (N311); Angola $0.362 (N329); Egypt, $0.403 (N366); Sudan, $0.700 (N637); and Nigeria $0.722 (N657).
On the global index, Nigeria was listed as the 22nd country with the most affordable fuel prices.
According to data compiled by Global Petrol Prices and presented on a chart in the report, as of January 2024, Iran has the world’s cheapest gasoline at just $0.029 (N26.52) per litre, while Hong Kong has the highest price at $3.101 (N2,835.77) per litre.
Several major oil-producing countries, including Libya, Venezuela, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, enjoy very low domestic fuel costs. Iran tops the list at $0.029 (N26.52), followed by Libya at $0.031 (N28.35) and Venezuela at $0.035 (N32.01).
“The average price of gasoline around the world is $1.29 per litre. However, there is a substantial difference in these prices among countries.
“As a general rule, richer countries have higher prices, while poorer countries and the countries that produce and export oil have significantly lower prices. One notable exception is the U.S., which is an economically advanced country but has low gas prices.
“The differences in prices across countries are due to the various taxes and subsidies for gasoline. All countries have access to the same petroleum prices of international markets but then decide to impose different taxes. As a result, the retail price of gasoline is different,” the report noted.
Protesters in Zimbabwe on Monday barricaded the main roads into major cities to protest a fuel price hike announced by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
According to video footage from the Centre for Innovation & Technology, police fired teargas to disperse youths protesting outside the high court in Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo.
In the southern city of Bulawayo, commuter bus drivers and touts blocked thoroughfares with burning tyres, tree branches, and blocks of stone.
Riot police tried to quell demonstrations in the western suburbs of Emakhandeni and Luveve, firing warning shots and tear gas but the protesters remained defiant.
Demonstrator Glen Ncube, 25, expressed anger at the president’s announcement on Saturday of a 150 per cent fuel price increase and the police actions.
“What kind of a man does this? Can Mnangagwa even be called a president? He’s making life hard for us and these police are trying to stop us as if they don’t know our pain,’’ Ncube said.
The government has vowed it “will not hesitate to take action” against protesters who threaten to destabilise the country and the military was deployed to assist police.
Report says Zimbabwe is going through its worst economic crisis in a decade.
The government announced an increase from 1.34 dollars for a litre of petrol to 3.31 dollars with diesel surging to 3.11 dollars per litre, igniting widespread discontent.
A three-day nationwide shutdown was called by workers’ trade unions in protest.
The action came shortly after junior doctors ended a 40-day strike demanding salaries in US dollars and better working conditions.
There won’t be increase in fuel price, despite the rise in the landing cost of imported fuel, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Public Affairs Group General Manager, Ndu Ughamadu, has said.
He said the landing cost goes up when the international price increases, adding that it is a normal occurrence in the global crude oil market.
He said the government has fixed N145 as official pump price for premium motor spirit (PMS) or petrol, adding that marketers were free to sell it at either the regulated price or below it, depending on market forces.
In an interview with The Nation Ughamadu denied any increase. He said: “NNPC is yet to give Nigerians the new landing cost of fuel as it is not within its responsibilities to do so. The responsibility of letting the country know what the new landing cost of fuel lies with the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and being a Federal Government owned- parastatal like NNPC, NNPC cannot exercise control over what the PPPRA does or is expected to do in the Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
“The global oil industry moves or operates in line with the market forces. Once there is rise in the global price of crude oil, related activities move in similar direction. That is why the increase in the price of crude and its attendant rise in the price of brining the product to Nigeria do not bother us (Nigeria) much. Traditionally, refiners of crude abroad ten to increase the cost of processing crude oil into finished products like Premium Motor Spirit, Kerosene and Diesel, when the price of crude rises at the global market.”
He said the landing cost had increased in the second quarter of the year compared to the first quarter.
The landing cost as at last December 22 was N171.4 per litre when the price of crude was $64 per barrel. At over $80 per barrel, the landing cost would be well above N180.
He said the price of crude was below $50 per barrel in the first quarter, stressing that the price of crude is $81 per barrel. He added that the country should expect increase in the landing cost of fuel. According to him, the government, has huge under-recovery to battle in view of the rise in the landing cost.
Ughamadu said the under-recovery rate is the gap between the cost of buying fuel abroad and the that of selling it at home. He said the government has been subsidising the cost of importing fuel, adding that the corporation was doing to avert fuel scarcity its attendant strains on the economy.
He said the level of fuel imports by NNPC had grown, adding that the country consumes a little over 50million litres of fuel.
It would be recalled that the government has taken over fuel import as marketers don’t find it profitable to import, especially without subsidy reimbursement.
Prices of consumables and building materials have increased in anticipation of a possible hike in the price of petrol, it was learnt at the weekend.
It was gathered that many distributors and retailers have adjusted their prices on the assumption that the Federal Government might increase the official pump price from N145 per litre to N200 per litre.
Though the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, has denied the hike, prices of goods have gone up.
Prices of rice, wheat, yam and others have increased by more than 100 per cent.
For building materials, it was gathered that white slates, which sold for N1400 per unit now goes for N1700 per unit, while colour slates that was N1560 per unit sells for N1730 per unit.
However, a sales representative with Paa gu and Sons Limited in Ikorodu, Lagos, Mr Olu Fred, attributed the increase to rising production costs and transportation.
Olu, whose firm is a distributor with Nigerite, said the increase in the price was a reflection of the economy.
He said: ‘’Our prices were the lowest in Igbogbo area of Ikorodu and its environs. But due to the rising cost of production, coupled with the rumours that the government was planning to increase the price of fuel, the firm decided to move the price upward. We are acting in line with the demand of market forces.’’
Also, it was gathered that prices of rice, beans and other basic food items have increased in markets within the Lagos metropolis. While some people sell a 50kg bag of rice for between N1,700 and N1,759, others sell it for N1,600.
TheNigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had projected the rate of inflation to drop to 13.49 per cent last month, from 14.33 per cent recorded in the previous month. Also, the agency said core inflation dropped from 15.33 per cent in January to 14.33 per cent last month, while it puts the country’s foreign reserves at $47billion.
For alleged connivance with petroleum marketers, the Imo State Chapter of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) and Niger Delta Youth Forum (NDYF) have called for the immediate sack of the Southeast Zonal Controller of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
The youths, who barricaded the entrance to the DPR office, said DPR’s failure to reduce the price of fuel has brought untold hardship on the people.
The Chairman, Mr. Isidore Chukwuemeka, alleged that the continued sale of fuel at N250 was a conspiracy between the marketers and the DPR.
He lamented that no petrol station has been sanctioned or shut though they were selling above the recommended pump price.
President of NDYF Ezekwesili Nwauwa said DPR has done nothing to regulate fuel prices.
He lamented that this had caused untold hardship to the people as the hike led to increase in fares.
But the Southeast Zonal Controller of DPR, Mr Peter Ijeh, said the agency has been actively trying to reduce the price of fuel.
“Imo State DPR is doing well, and people outside the state have called to hail our efforts. We go out and make rounds of the fuel stations in the state, and those that refuse to comply are shut.
“There is no way we can collaborate with marketers to sell above the recommended pump price, it is not possible,” he said.
Ijeh, however, said marketers change their prices when DPR officials must have left their stations.
Petrol stations in Owerri, the state capital, have continued to sell for as much as N250 per litre, and there has not been any report of sanction on the erring fuel stations by the DPR.
