3 months ago
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The Nigeria Employers Consultative Association, NECA, has criticised the recent hike in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS (petrol), by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL.
This is as NECA described the situation as Nigerians paying for the inefficiency of NNPCL.
The Director General of NECA, Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, said this in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja, responding to the new pump price of PMS.
NNPCL Retail outlets hiked the pump price of fuel to N855 per litre.
Consequently, Oyerinde said the increase is not only worrisome but also unfair.
He said: “We had expected that the government would leverage on the momentum created by the completion of the Dangote refinery and the planned commencement of operation of the Port-Harcourt refinery.
“This is to clear the obvious self-inflicted pain on Nigerians and progressively reduce the pump price of petrol. This seems not to be the case.
“This new pump price could be seen as making Nigerians pay for the crass inefficiency in the NNPCL.”
He further remarked that, rather than tackling the fundamental issues that have caused Nigeria to remain a net importer of petrol despite having four refineries, the government has continued to impose hardships on Nigerians.
He further noted that the government’s actions are inadvertently contributing to the increasing cost of doing business.
He advised the government to reconsider its approach and take all necessary measures to address the ongoing impoverishment of Nigerians and the weakening of organised businesses.
The development comes as Dangote Refinery officially announced the first rollout of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol).
The President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, had stated that the refinery’s petrol price would be fixed by the Federal Executive Council.
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