Chairman, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), in the South-West has said that the recent fuel pump price increase had worsened the difficulty in manufacturers’ operations. Meanwhile The House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) has appealed to President Bola Tinubu and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. to revert to the old petrol pump price. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, the committee chairman, in a statement, said, “We urge the federal government and, of course, the NNPCL to consider the plight of Nigerians and suspend this recent increase in pump price. “Let us revert to the old pump price as soon as possible and probably intensify engagements with major stakeholders to address the problem.” Doguwa, also the chairman of the Special Committee on Crude Oil Theft and Vandalisation of Pipelines, pledged to tackle the challenge caused by the government’s loss of revenue owing to the loss of crude oil.
“As a special committee, we will aggressively seek modalities to interface with the youths and community leaders in the oil-producing areas,” the legislator stressed. According to him, this is to address the frequent cases of crude oil theft, which can affect petrol supply across the country. We are working in collaboration with security agencies in their quest to secure oil pipelines and other critical facilities in the country. We believe that a return to the old pump price will calm frayed nerves, thus enabling Nigerians to go about their daily activities with ease,” Mr Doguwa said .
According MAN Chairman “the present hard situation in the country has been worsened by the fuel increment with no respite in sight”. Popoola decried how difficulty it has been to operate manufacturing firms on full scale under the current economic hardship in Nigeria. He said manufacturers were already facing difficulties before the increase in the price of petrol. Popoola said it was unfortunate that the federal government expected the private sector to implement a N70,000 new national minimum wage amidst the fuel price increase and instability in the economy.
“Can we increase salaries now? No. We are in a dilemma,” he said. According to him, the sector has been plagued with economic challenges, such as inflation and the devaluation of naira amidst forex scarcity. “It has been difficult to operate manufacturing industries on a full scale. Even before the fuel increment, and now that the worst has happened, it has been difficult to operate under the economic hardship,’’ he told journalists. The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited reviewed the price of PMS from N580 per litre to N855 and N1,200 depending on the location.
Doguwa that with the Petroleum Industry Act and the effort to revive the nation’s refineries, Nigeria would reap the benefits of her oil and gas endowments in no distant time.“We believe that with interventions the government is making to commence operations at Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, these challenges will come to an end,” he said. On Tuesday, NNPC directed its fuel sales outlets to increase their pump price from an average of N617 to N897. This development has almost immediately spiked prices, including in the market commodities and transportation sector.
