The latest petrol price watch report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that consumers paid the highest for a litre of petrol in Abia, Ekiti and Lagos State with N172.5, N170.62, and N167.8 respectively.
According to the report, the average price paid by consumers for premium motor spirit (PMS) commonly called petrol increased by 2.36% year-on-year in September 2021 to N164.85 per litre. It however recorded a marginal decrease of 0.04% compared to N164.91 in the previous month.
On the flip side, the states with the lowest price of petrol in September 2021, were Ebonyi (N162.27), Ondo (N162.20) and Kano State with N160.83.
The price of petroleum products continues to rise in the country due to a positive rally in global crude oil prices, which in essence affects the landing cost of petrol. Recall that crude oil prices have surged in recent times trading above $85 per barrel, from the downturn recorded earlier in the year.
Nigeria’s inability to sufficiently refine its own crude has necessitated the importation of petrol, which in turn, has cost the nation more money instead of the gains we would have received from the bullish trade in the global crude oil market.
However, as the governor of the Central Bank noted at an event abroad recently, the Dangote Refinery, which is projected to commence operations next year, will plug the gaping hole in the nation’s refining capacity, purchasing its crude in naira and producing enough refined products to serve the country’s need as well as earn the nation forex from the export of these refined products.
At the investors’ summit which was held in New York, Emefiele stated that no less than 30% of the nation’s forex spend on the importation of refined petroleum products will be saved when the Dangote Refinery becomes operational.
Meanwhile, a cursory look at the data shows that the average cost of petrol in the country has dropped consecutively for two months in a row. It hit a yearly high of N172.68 per litre in March 2021 and a low of N164.09 in January 2021.
According to the agency, fieldwork is done solely by over 700 NBS staff in all States of the federation supported by supervisors who are monitored by internal and external observers.
Petrol prices are collected across all the 774 local governments across all States and the FCT from over 10,000 respondents and locations and reflect actual prices households state they actually bought petrol together with the prices reportedly sold by PMS suppliers.
The average of all these prices is then reported for each state and the average for the country is the average for the states. The NBS has however noted that its audit team subsequently conducts randomly selected verification of prices recorded.