Arbitrary increases in Petrol Pump prices beyond Official Post-Subsidy Rates have burdened several Nigerian States.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report titled “Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol) Price Watch” for July 2023, Borno state topped the list with a price of N657.27 per liter, surpassing the Post-Subsidy adjusted official price for that region, N600.35 per liter, by 9.5%. Following closely, Abia state recorded N643.15, and Gombe state ranked third with N642.22, Overshooting the adjusted prices by 7.13% and 6.9% respectively.
The NBS report on Automotive Gas Oil (Diesel) Price Watch for the same month highlighted Niger State at the top of the price chart, standing at N892.50 per liter, marking a 12.34% Increase from N794.48.
Meanwhile, Edo, Kwara, and Benue States offered the lowest Petrol retail prices at N530.00, N535.44, and N537.00 respectively, according to the NBS report.
On the other hand, the lowest Diesel retail Prices were found in Bayelsa, Anambra/Bauchi, and Ondo states at N683.20, N700.00, and N701.58 respectively.
In terms of annual changes, the average price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) rose by 215.95%, reaching N600.35 in July 2023 compared to N190.01 in the same period of 2022.
Additionally, the average retail price of Automotive Gas Oil (diesel) increased by 2.60% year-on-year, rising to N794.48 per liter in July 2023 from N774.38 in July 2022.
Looking at monthly Variations, the retail price of a liter of Petrol grew by 9.99% to N600.35 in July 2023 from N545.83 in June 2023. Meanwhile, the diesel price decreased by 2.62% month-on-month, dropping to N794.48 in July 2023 from N815.83 in June 2023.
The Zonal representation Indicated that the North-East zone held the highest PMS price at N630.13, while the North-Central zone had the lowest price at N551.58.
