Despite the hike in fuel prices, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has insisted that the country still has the cheapest product price among other African countries.
National Public Relations Officer of the Association, Yakubu Suleiman, who stated this in a recent interview, also blamed the sudden hike in the pump price of petrol on the cost of dollars.
He explained that petroleum products are imported to Nigeria using dollars, hence the increase.
His words:
“The rise in price was caused, as usual, by the market forces. Market now determines prices. And secondly, because of the dollar. You know, the higher the crude oil price, the product price locally will also be higher. So at the time, the crude oil comes down, the product will also come down.
“When you import petrol from abroad to Nigeria as at today, it’ll arrive in Nigeria at the price of N565. So when you think of it, yes, marketers are trying.
“But I still want to reiterate to Nigerians that we need their understanding that a further rise in price is what we don’t pray for. Let’s join hands together and pray so that we have a regime in which products will be cheaper than what we have now.
“And also compared to other African countries, we still have the cheapest petrol price. But we don’t pray that the price will be higher than we currently have. We don’t pray for that.”
