We’re Spending $600m Every Month on Fuel Importation – Tinubu’s Minister Edun
The finance minister Wale Edun has said that the country spends a whooping sum of $600m (six hundred million United States dollar) every month on importation of petroleum.
He made the statement at a time the Dangote Refinery and the Nigeria’s oil company NNPC Limited are at loggerheads over the supply of necessary crude oil to the local refinery. Nigerians are optimistic that the Dangote Refinery in Lagos would help to cut the pump price.
According to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics, the country’s petrol import was reduced to an average of one billion liters monthly after President Bola Tinubu removed the fuel subsidy on May 29 last year.
He said, “The fuel subsidy was removed May 29, 2023, by Mr President, and at that time, the poorest of 40 per cent was only getting four per cent of the value, and basically, they were not benefitting at all. So it was going to just a few.
“Another point that I think is important is that nobody knows the consumption in Nigeria of petroleum. We know we spend $600m to import fuel every month but the issue here is that all the neighbouring countries are benefitting.
“So we are buying not for just for Nigeria, we are buying for countries to the east, almost as far as Central Africa. We are buying. We are buying for countries to the North and we are buying for countries to the West. And so we have to ask ourselves as Nigerians, how long do we want to do that for and that is the key issue regarding the issue of petroleum pricing.”
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