The average retail price paid by consumers for Premium Motor Spirit, also called ‘petrol’ has dropped for the first time in four months, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The average retail price for petrol in August 2022 decreased by 0.29 percent to N189 from N190 in the previous month.
On a month-on-month analysis, the average price for petrol increased by 14.89 percent from N165 per litre in August, last year.
Kaduna State had the highest average retail price of petrol with N211, followed by Jigawa with N210 and Ebonyi with N206.
On the other hand, Ogun had the lowest average retail price for petrol with N177.8, followed by Delta with N178 and Bauchi with N178.50.
In addition, analysis by zone showed that the North-West recorded the highest average retail price in August 2022 with N199.73, while the North-East had the lowest with N178.93.
Ekoh Jeremiah, a resident from Satellite Town, Lagos told BusinessDay that he brought a full 25-litre jerry can of petrol for N4, 700, yesterday. This indicates that it was sold for 180 per litre.
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On the other hand, Idu Raphael, a corp member, serving in Ibadan, Oyo state said the price of petrol increased in his area by N30. He told BusinessDay he brought petrol on Monday for N186 per litre.
Analysts say several factors including the cost of importation and unplanned outages can sometimes account for different prices across the country.
Etulan Adu, an oil and gas expert said that truck drivers of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and National Gas Workers (NUPENG) had embarked on a strike due to high fees during stop and search operations by security agents along the highway to Port Harcourt.
This led to many filling stations raising prices before the situation was resolved.
Furthermore, NBS report on Foreign trade in Goods statistics for the second quarter of this year revealed that Nigeria spent N948 billion on imported petrol, accounting for 17.46 percent of the share of total imports into the country within the period.
Last month, Mele Kyari, the group chief executive officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited said the country will end the importation of petroleum products by June next year counting on the Dangote refinery coming on stream.
