Billy Gillis-Harry, President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PPROOAN), has issued a warning about the potential for further fuel price hikes at retail stations amidst the ongoing depreciation of the Nigerian Naira.
As reported by Punch news, Harry emphasized that the sustained weakening of the Naira is exerting pressure on the cost of petrol. He indicated that consumers should brace themselves for an impending price surge in line with the current trend of Naira depreciation.

“So long as the naira is losing against the dollar, the price of petrol in our retail outlets will continue to increase. We have requested that the President should declare a state of emergency on our refineries to speed up their repairs.
“That is the one sure way to go, in order to be able to predict the price of petroleum products because for now, every PMS you buy in any retail outlet is dollarized.”

Similarly, Mike Osatuyi, the National Controller of Operations at the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), said that petrol prices will keep rising due to the increase in global crude prices.

“In view of the rising prices of crude oil, we can now see that the quantity of petrol they said we used to consume had dropped. At the same time, we can see that price of crude oil is increasing, meaning; Nigeria would have more money in addition to the money the country has saved from subsidy removal.
Since we have more money in the country, we have to pay as petrol prices keep rising. Ex-depot price is now between N585 and N590 per liter depending on the depot, and it will either go up or come down, depending on crude price and exchange rate.”

It would be recalled that the naira plummeted to another record low of N930/$1 at the parallel market on Thursday, August 10, 2023, as the demand for dollar by importers and other end-users far outstrips supply.

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