President Bola Tinubu will not hesitate to jack up the price of petrol per litre to N2000, if he had his way.
In Nigeria currently, price of petrol per litre depending on location ranges from N1,000 to N1300, while it goes as much as N1700 in the black market.
Despite being an oil producing country, Tinubu has told Nigerians to be ready to pay more without complaining because petrol is cheap in Nigeria compared to those of some West African States where the price ranges between N1700 to N2000 per litre.
Government officials and the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited said smuggling of the petrol products to neighboring countries made it expedient for the price to be high in Nigeria.
But according to a Global Petrol Prices reports, Nigerian has the highest price per litre among the African oil producing countries. Libya has the cheapest with $0.32 or N52 per litre for the month of September.
In oil producing Angola price of petrol per litre is $0.351 or N568, Algeria 0.342 or N538, while in Egypt price of petrol per litre is $0.279 or N456.
According to economists the high cost of petrol is fueling inflation in Nigeria, and this has led to high cost of goods and services.
Adenike Andrew, an economics graduate turned restaurateur, criticised the rationale behind subsidy removal, arguing that the Nigerian populace cannot bear fuel prices comparable to those in wealthier countries, especially given their lower income levels.
“If they say they removed it (subsidy) because our neighbouring countries are also benefiting from it, it is self-indictment. Our security agencies should do their work. And most importantly, Nigeria should tap the enormous market in Africa to earn foreign currency by supplying petrol to them using legal means.
“It is wrong to say that Nigerians must pay for petrol in the same manner as non-oil, but rich countries are selling it to their citizens. People there have higher incomes. Our people here have been pauperised in facets,” she said.
Nigeria Labour Congress president Joe Ajaero said Tinubu is not yet done with increasing the price of petrol
“Mr. President also offered to sponsor our trip to some West African countries, where the lowest petrol price is N1,700. He said in Cameroon, petrol is sold for N2,000, and none of these countries have refineries—they source their products from Nigeria,” Ajaero said.
“We told him to secure the borders because that’s the reason those products are being smuggled.”
