Some states in Nigeria are groaning under arbitrary increases in the pump price of petrol beyond the official post-subsidy prices.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report titled, “Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol) Price Watch” for July 2023, showed that Borno state topped the price chart at N657.27 per litre, overshooting the post-subsidy adjusted official price of N600.35 per litre for that region by 9.5 percent.
Abia state followed with N643.15, while Gombe state ranked third with N642.22, thus overshooting the adjusted prices by 7.13 per cent and 6.9 per cent respectively.
This comes as the NBS report on Automotive Gas Oil (Diesel) Price Watch for July 2023, showed that Niger state topped the price chart at N892.50 per litre indicating an increase of 12.34 per cent to N794.48.
Abia state followed with N890.63, while Enugu state came third with N872.73 indicating an increase of 12.1 per cent and 9.85 per cent respectively.
However, Edo, Kwara and Benue states emerged with the lowest retail price for petrol at N530.00, N535.44 and N537.00 respectively according to the NBS report. While Bayelsa, Anambra/ Bauchi and Ondo states emerged with the lowest retail price for diesel at N683.20, N700.00 and N701.58 respectively.
The average price
Meanwhile, the average price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, rose year-on-year, YoY, by 215.95 per cent to N600.35 in July 2023 from N190.01 recorded in the corresponding period of 2022.
This also comes as the average retail price of Automotive Gas Oil (diesel) increased year-on-year, YoY, by 2.60 percent to N794.48 per litre in July 2023 from N774.38 per litre in July 2022.
On a month-on-month basis, the retail price of a litre of petrol increased by 9.99 per cent to N600.35 in July 2023 from N545.83 in June 2023 while the price of diesel decreased on a month-on-month basis by 2.62 per cent to N794.48 in July 2023 from N815.83 in June 2023.
The zonal representation of the average price of PMS showed that the North- East zone had the highest price of N630.13, while the North-central zone had the lowest price of N551.58.
The North Central zone has the highest average price of Automotive Gas Oil (Diesel) of N863.10 while the South West zone has the lowest price of N759.45 when compared with other zones.
