The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has urged the federal government to revert petrol prices to their June 2023 levels.
TUC President Festus Osifo said that the prices should not only return to their previous levels but also decrease.
At a press briefing in Abuja, Osifo stressed that government intervention is crucial in the oil sector, particularly by providing foreign exchange to Dangote Refinery at a reduced rate of $1/N1,000, instead of the current $1/N1,600 exchange rate. This, he believes, will help reduce petrol prices.
“The solution we are proposing, if implemented, will take us back to the price we had as of June last year,” Osifo stated.
Speaking on the availability of the product, Osifo stated: “If it is not available, it is a problem. If, for example, the production from Dangote Refinery is less than 15 million litres per day, it is not sufficient.
“So, while efforts are being made to ramp up production from Dangote Refinery, what we are demanding is that we should look for every other means as we are ramping up production, we should source for that difference and bring it in for a while until Dangote can get to that level where the production is sufficient to get to all nooks and crannies of Nigeria. For us, that is key because it will address the issue of availability.”
Since May 2023, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has increased petrol prices from ₦184 in Lagos to ₦998. In June 2023, the price per litre of petrol was around ₦450 in Lagos.
On Wednesday, the price of the product in NNPC retail outlets were adjusted. In Lagos, many NNPCL outlets sold a litre of petrol for ₦998, about ₦150 higher than the initial price of ₦855.
As of Thursday, independent marketers are selling the product for about N1200 per litre.
