The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, on Wednesday, said the importation of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, into Nigeria has been reduced by 50 per cent since the withdrawal of subsidy on the commodity.
During his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023, President Bola Tinubu declared that the fuel subsidy was gone. Within 24 hours after that declaration, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Nigeria’s sole importer of PMS, withdrew subsidies on petrol.
This led to a jump in the price of the commodity from about N198/litre to over N500/litre, as it later moved up to over N600/litre and currently sells for between N620/litre and N700/litre depending on the area of purchase.
Speaking at the third edition of the ministerial press briefing series in Abuja on Wednesday, where the Coordinating Minister for Health and Social Welfare addressed journalists, Idris stated that subsidy removal had led to the reduction of fuel imports by 50 per cent.
“Petrol importation has been reduced by 50 per cent since the withdrawal of the fuel subsidy,” the information minister stated.
On February 18, 2023, about three months before the PMS subsidy was removed by Tinubu, the Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPCL, Mele Kyari, revealed that Nigeria was consuming about 66 million litres of PMS daily.
Kyari also stated that over N400bn was spent monthly to subsidise PMS at the time, stressing that the subsidy was having adverse impacts on the cash flow of NNPCL.
NNPCL is the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria and has continued to play this role for several years, bearing the huge cost of fuel subsidy.
