ABUJA, Nigeria – The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has cautioned that the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as petrol, could rise to N1,000 per litre by December 2023 due to the removal of fuel subsidy and a lack of competition in the oil sector.
Last week, the newly inaugurated President, Bola Tinubu, announced the removal of fuel subsidy during his inauguration speech.
The announcement led to a sudden increase in petrol prices and hoarding of fuel across the country.
Following the President’s announcement, the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) revised the pump price of petrol from about N185 to over N500, prompting the NLC to demand a reversal of the fuel subsidy removal. The NLC has threatened to stage a protest on Wednesday, June 7, 2023, over the petrol price hike.
Speaking on Arise News on Sunday, June 4, 2023, NLC National President Jeo Ajaero stated that the government’s failure to liberalize the oil sector to allow for more private investment could push the pump price of fuel as high as N1,000 per litre.
He criticized the monopolistic state of the oil sector, citing Dangote’s fuel production dominance and the non-functioning state-owned refineries as obstacles to market competition.
Ajaero insisted that the price of petrol might continue to surge unless the refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna are operating optimally.
Expressing his concerns, Ajaero questioned, “How can there be market forces if Dangote is the only one producing? Are we not maintaining a private sector monopoly which is even worse than the public sector monopoly that the NNPC has been maintaining? Why are the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries not working?”
