In a bid to permanently put an end to the lingering fuel scarcity across the nation, the Federal Government of Nigeria has announced that Nigerians might have to pay more for petrol in the days ahead even as it would review the price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as petrol, next month.
This disclosure was made by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, during a visit to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) in Abuja on Tuesday.
The Minister also made it known that the current fuel scarcity experienced across the country would end in Lagos and Abuja by Thursday, while it would end in other states of the country by the end of the week.
He said: “The reality is that in the first three months of the price modulation, our recovery basically enabled us to save quite a lot of money and that is going to fund the gap that we see in April. But for May, obviously, the prices would have to be adjusted to mark the current trends.
“Our proprietary positions are for two different concerns. As petroleum Minister, my goal is to make sure that the price of crude oil continues to climb, but as NNPC GMD, our goal is to ensure that people buy product at cheaper price. They do not go together somehow. So most time, I try to balance the curve.”
“The whole fuel queues had been a complete nightmare for me. The reality is that I hurt more than every Nigerian who is at the filling stations. I am very emotional about my job and the things I do.
“We just need to take the right policies. As hard as they are, as difficult as they come, we need to take the right policies to ensure that we do not have a recurrence of this fuel subsidy. It has been with us historically, but I don’t want that to define my legacy in the petroleum sector.
“Hopefully, by tomorrow, Thursday, the fuel queues in Abuja should be over. Hopefully, the same thing should happen in Lagos and, thereafter, by the weekend, we should see same in Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Port Harcourt and a few other states.”
In a similar development, the Acting Executive Secretary of the PPPRA, Mrs. Sotonye Iyoyo, has charged the Federal Government to undertake the automation of PPPRA operations for improved efficiency and transparency and also develop a pricing framework to encourage local refining and discourage importation of petroleum products in the long term.
No comments:
Post a Comment