Leading figure in the sector and CEO of Rainoil Limited, Gabriel Ogbechie, has asserted that the federal government has started paying the contentious gasoline subsidy again in response to the Naira’s decline in value on the foreign exchange market.
During the Stanbic IBTC Energy and Infrastructure Breakfast Session in Lagos on Tuesday, Ogbechie made this declaration. He emphasized that the government’s gasoline subsidy ranges from N400 to N500 per liter, with Nigeria using 40 million liters of fuel per day and the foreign exchange rate at N1,300.
This adds up to a monthly total of about N600 billion.
“When Mr. President came May last year, one of the things he said is that Subsidy is gone. And truly subsidy was gone because immediately the price of fuel moved from 200 to 500 per liter. At that point truly, subsidy was gone.
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“During that period, Dollar was exchanging for N460, but a few weeks later, the government devalued the exchange rate. And Dollar moved to about N750. At that point, subsidy was beginning to come back.
“The moment the two markets officially closed, officially the market went to about N1,300. At that point, that conversation was out of the window. Subsidy was fully back on petrol. If you want to know where petrol should be, just look at where diesel is. Diesel is about N1,300 and petrol is still selling for N600.
“So I can tell you for free that there there is at least N400 or N500 liters subsidy on petrol today. If you look at our daily consumption, say 40 million liters, and we’re spending N500 per liter, that is about N20 billion every day, N600 billion every month and 7.2 trillion yearly depending on how we look at it. So, subsidy is definitely back on petrol,” he said.
Furthermore, he said that NNPC being the only petrol importer in the country implies that there is an ongoing subsidy, as prices had to be fixed.
“And if you look at it, NNPC remains the sole importer of petrol in this country because there is subsidy on petrol so the price has to be pegged,” he added.
