The National Public Relations Officer of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Yakubu Suleiman, has said that even with the sudden hike in the pump price of petrol in Nigeria, the country still has the cheapest price of the product among other African countries.
He stated this during a chat with ARISE TV concerning the recent hike in the price of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol.
Suleiman also blamed the sudden hike in the pump price of petrol on the cost of dollars.
He explained that petroleum products are imported to Nigeria using dollars, hence the increase.
He said, “The rise in price was caused, as usual, by the market forces. Market now determines prices. And secondly because of the dollar. You know the higher the crude oil price, the product price locally will also be higher. So at the time the crude oil comes down, the product will also come down.
“To be frank, it’s just speculation that people are thinking marketers are happy with the new price. If any marketer would tell you that he’s happy with the new price, he just wants to deceive you.
“When you import petrol from abroad to Nigeria as at today, it’ll arrive in Nigeria at the the price of N565. So when you think of it, yes, marketers are trying. But I still want to reiterate to Nigerians that we need their understanding that a further rise in price is what we don’t pray for. Let’s join hands together and pray so that we have a regime in which products will be cheaper than what we have now.
“And also compared to other African countries, we still have the cheapest petrol price. But we don’t pray that the price will be higher than we currently have. We don’t pray for that.”
On Tuesday, the Nigerian National Petroleum Commission Limited (NNPCL) and other oil marketers raised the price of petrol from about N537/litre to (between) N617 and N630/litre, a development that triggered widespread anger across the country.
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