The Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari has said Nigerians ought to be paying a minimum of N256 per litre of petrol.
Mr Kyari stated this during a stakeholders meeting organised by the NNPC aimed at stopping fuel smuggling on Tuesday.
While commenting on the monthly subsidy payment, the NNPC boss noted that pump price for petrol should be N256 per litre given the current exchange rate.
“If we are to sell at the market today at the current exchange rate, we will be selling the product at about N256 to a litre. What we sell today is N162, so the difference is at a cost to the nation,’’ he said.
Kyari revealed that the country coughs out about N150 billion every month on subsidy, based on the high volume of daily consumption.
He further explained that, “As long as we don’t regulate volume until we are able to exit this current level, which I know so much work is going on, then we have to manage the volume that we are exposed to between this price of N162 and N256. The difference comes back to as much as N140 billion to N150 billion cost to the country monthly.
“As long as the volume goes up, that money continues to increase, and we have two sets of stress to face: the stress of supply and stress of foreign exchange for the NNPC. We may not see foreign exchange cheque taking place for importation,’’ he added.
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