President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday 18th March 2020 ordered a reduction in the price per liter of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol. This was contained in a statement issued by Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva. The statement directs the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to fix a new price, but did not state the price. However, reports reach us states that the NNPC has directed her stations nation wide to sell at N125 per liter.
This is coming on the hills of continuous drop in price per barrel of crude oil in the international market from $50 some weeks back to less than $30 currently. This sad development was orchestrated by the impact of the corona virus and inability for OPEC and Non-OPEC countries to reach an agreement of a cut in the volume of production.
The fall in the global price of crude oil has badly affected the global economy with Nigeria’s Oil dependent economy badly shaken. Budget funding may be a great challenge if thing don’t improve. Nigeria’s National Assembly had fixed $56 per barrel as the price anticipated for Oil Revenue which is to fund the 2020 Budget. With crud oil now below $30 per barrel, there seems to but an impending economic shift.
The Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mele Kyari had asked Nigerians to brace up for what they described impending hardship for about two months.
This will be the first time in the current administrations six (6) years sojourn that the price of PMS will be reduced from the current N145 per liter fixed since the administration’s inception to N125.
Nigeria Star News 