ABUJA, Sept 16 (Askume) – Nigeria’s state-owned oil company NNPC Ltd raised gasoline prices by 11% on Monday, the second increase in two weeks, after it resumed buying the fuel from its giant Dangote refinery in the suburbs. Gauss.
Nigeria hopes the 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery will end years of gasoline imports, which it subsidized for decades until President Bola Tinubu began withdrawing support after taking office last May.
Gasoline prices are a sensitive issue in Nigeria because many homes and small businesses use gasoline to generate electricity since most citizens are not connected to the national grid.
On Monday, the NNPC said it had raised the price of petrol from 858 naira ($0.53) per litre to 950 naira in Lagos and to 1,019 naira in northeastern states. The company said it bought the product from the refinery at N898 per litre.
The NNPC said it had on Sunday begun buying fuel from Dangote in US dollars, while an agreement to buy petrol in the local naira currency was still pending.
The latest hike is likely to fuel public anger as Nigerians are already grappling with 33.4% inflation , which has pushed up transportation costs and created a cost-of-living crisis that led to violent protests in early August .
Nigeria’s Presidential Council on Friday announced that the NNPC will distribute gasoline from the $20 billion Dangote Refinery to the local market, ending a stalemate that had hindered distribution.
From October, the NNPC will supply 385,000 barrels of crude oil per day, paid for in naira by the Dangote Refinery, which will in turn sell its fuel in local currency.
(1 USD = 1,614.2000 Naira)
