Dangote Denies ‘Causing’ Petrol Price Hike, Demands Nigerians To Ask Questions

Dangote Refinery has rejected being the cause of the recent petrol price hike, selling for N998 by NNPCL, demanding that Nigerians should ask questions.

BrandNewsDay reports that contrary to reports that the new petrol price hike must have been triggered by an increase in the ex-depot price of the product at the Dangote refinery, officials of the refinery have denied the claim.

There were online reports on Wednesday indicating that the Dangote refinery had raised the price of petrol to N977/litre, prompting NNPC to also push up its rate.

However, senior officials at Dangote refinery described the report as “fake news.”

“The NNPC should be in a position to tell you why it increased the price of petrol, go and ask them. I don’t know where you got N977 from,” an official told our correspondent.

With the new price hike, petroleum marketers said they would need more money to top up their existing orders with the NNPC.

The President of the Petroleum Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Gilly-Harry, told one of our correspondents on Wednesday that marketers would only receive the products they had bidded for after completing the differential to make up for the new price.

“We have been communicated that this is the new price the NNPC will be selling to us. The factors as to why the price change has not been told. But don’t forget that we are entering into a fully deregulated segment of the business. It means quite a lot to us because we need to go and look for more money to add to the product we have already paid for. That is why we are crying.

”The challenges we have as retailers are more than meets the eye. We also don’t have consistent sales because the purchasing power of the masses has been eroded. We are hoping that things will change for the future,” he said.

Gilly-Harry maintained that things would change when those in charge of the economy wore their thinking caps on how the economy should improve.

“We cannot just be sharing money after crude oil had been sold, with no direct productivity that would bring economic growth. If we are selling fuel at N1,050, the purchasing power of the people should be an average of N300,000 as the minimum salary. We should learn from how America created a growing economy,” he stated.

He stated that he had sent a letter to apply for a direct PMS purchase from the Dangote refinery, saying there was no reply yet.

“We have not heard from Dangote; they have not given us any leeway that PETROAN members should come and buy PMS from them. I have written to them,” he noted.

Meanwhile, members of the Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria said the new price would affect its members as many may not be able to pay about N45m to get a truckload of petrol.

Though the association acknowledged the fact that the new price was a reflection of the full implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act in a deregulated market, the implication for members, it said, would be damning.

 

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“The price increase will definitely affect our members because for our members to take one 45,000 litres of PMS, they will be thinking of about N45m. The capital is huge for most of our members. We keep on clamouring for this energy bank; we need banks that can sponsor this thing.

”We need banks that can give us soft loans in line with the cost of petroleum products so that we can service our stations,” IPMAN spokesperson, Chinedu Ukadike, stated.

Ukadike added that the interest rate in most of the commercial banks is too high, stressing that the cost of running a filling station deserves government intervention.

“Independent marketers are really suffering to acquire funds to face the challenges of deregulation,” he said.

Meanwhile, the national president of IPMAN, Abubakar Maigandi, said marketers would meet NNPC on the new price.

 

The Punch