Federal Government will no longer release guiding price bands for the sale of petrol at filling stations; this gives oil marketers the autonomy to fix prices.
On March 19, 2020, the government, through the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, commenced what it called a petrol pricing regime, whereby it releases bands showing upper and lower limits for the pump price of petrol monthly.
The PPPRA, however, did not issue price guidelines for the months of August and September but declared on Tuesday that it would not provide such guiding prices anymore, adding that full deregulation was now in force.
Speaking to journalists at a media briefing at the headquarters of the agency, the Executive Secretary, Abdulkadir Saidu, stated that going forward, petrol price would be determined by the forces of demand and supply and the international cost of crude oil.
He, however, noted that the role of the agency would be to ensure that oil marketers do not profiteer, as every petrol dealer was, henceforth, free to source for the product and fix their prices.
“This, however, must be in accordance with our code of conduct because as the regulator, it is our duty to protect the consumer and operators must abide by our codes,” Saidu stated.
