THE World Bank has said the Federal Government may still be paying fuel subsidies, considering that the country’s fuel prices are currently not cost-reflective.
It said the petrol price should be around N750 per litre more than the N650 per litre currently paid by Nigerians.
The bank’s Lead Economist for Nigeria, Alex Sienaert, disclosed this during his presentation of the Nigeria Development Update, December 2023 edition titled, ‘Turning The Corner (from reforms and renewed hope, to results) on Wednesday in Abuja.
During the hybrid event, he noted that based on the official exchange rate today, fuel should cost N750/litre.
He said, “It does seem like petrol prices are not fully adjusting to market conditions so that hints at the partial return of the subsidy if we estimate what the cost reflective of retail PMS price of the would-be is and assuming that importation is done at the official FX rate.
“Of course, the liberalisation is happening with the parallel rates, the main supplier; the price would be even higher. These are just estimates to give you a sense of what cost-reflective pricing most likely looks like.
“We think the petrol price should be around N750 per litre more than the N650 per litre currently paid by Nigerians.”
VAM recalls that in June, the Federal government, led by President Bola Tinubu, announced fuel subsidy removal, increasing the petrol pump price to over N600/litre from N189/litre in May 2023.
