Kachikwu says petrol pump price may go up in May

There are indications that Nigerians may pay more for petrol in May, as the Federal Government may review the pump price of the product upward.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, gave the hint on Tuesday while speaking during a visit to the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, in Abuja.

The minister, who indicated that the present scarcity of petrol being witnessed across the country would end in Lagos and Abuja tomorrow, said government was also considering the privatization of the petroleum industry as a long term solution to the incessant fuel scarcity.

Speaking on the planned review, Kachikwu said the country had been able to save a lot of money within the first three months of the year, and that the savings made would be used to fund the gap recorded in pricing in April while prices would have to be adjusted in May to reflect current realities.

Read also: Forget fuel subsidy, FG tells Nigerians

He said:  “The reality is that in the first three months of the price modulation, our recovery basically enabled us to save quite a lot of money and that is going to fund the gap that we see in April. But for May, obviously, the prices would have to be adjusted to mark the current trends.

“Our proprietary positions are for two different concerns. As petroleum Minister, my goal is to make sure that the price of crude oil continues to climb, but as NNPC GMD, our goal is to ensure that people buy product at cheaper price. They do not go together somehow. So most time, I try to balance the curve.”

Kachikwu, who said the protracted fuel queues across the nation has been a nightmare for him,  said the nation needs the right policies to be taken to bring the crisis to an end, once and for all.

“The whole fuel queues had been a complete nightmare for me. The reality is that I hurt more than every Nigerian who is at the filling stations. I am very emotional about my job and the things I do.

“We just need to take the right policies. As hard as they are, as difficult as they come, we need to take the right policies to ensure that we do not have a recurrence of this fuel subsidy. It has been with us historically, but I don’t want that to define my legacy in the petroleum sector”, he said.

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