End of Fuel Subsidy: Groups asks Buhari to speak up

President Muhammadu Buhari, who is the Minister of Petroleum Resources, must issue an official statement to affirm that the recent declaration by the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, on the end of fuel subsidy payment in Nigeria is not government gimmick, civil society groups have said.

At an online meeting by a consortium of civil society groups advocating for reforms in the downstream sector of the oil & gas industry on Thursday in Abuja, participants noted that Nigerians were not convinced the deregulation policy has taken off with only the NNPC GMD making statements about it.

Some participants at the meeting included CISLAC, BUDGIT, Spaces for Change, NNF, Youth Forum of EITI, CSEA, Centre LSD, NNRC, CSSC, Media Initiative for Transparency in Extractive Industries, Order Paper, WiE, PWYP, CODE, ANEEJ.

On Wednesday, March 18, 2020, Mr Kyari announced the downward adjustment of the retail price of premium motor spirit (PMS), popularly called petrole, from N145 per litre to N125.

The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) later further reduced the price to N123.50 per litre.

It was the first time the price would be adjusted since it was reviewed in 2016, from N86 per litre to N145 by President Buhari on assumption of office.

Mr Kyari said the adjustment was in compliance with the directive of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipreye Sylva, to reflect the declining trend in crude oil prices at the international market as a result of the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.

End of fuel subsidy

On April 6, 2020, Mr Kyari clarified that the latest adjustment to the retail price of petrol was indeed an indication that fuel subsidy, which has cost the country multi-billion Naira in losses over the year, was gone forever.

“There would be no resort to either fuel subsidy or under-recovery of any nature. NNPC will play in the petroleum marketplace, just like another marketer in the space. But we (NNPC) will be there for the country to sustain the security of supply at market price,” he said.