Dangote Petroleum Refinery set the price of diesel at N1200 three weeks ago, when it first started operations as part of the product roll-out.
Some hours ago, the price was reduced by another N200, bringing the goods down to N1000.
Last Wednesday, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Chairman of the Dangote Group, stated that the major reduction in fuel prices to N1,200 would have a good impact on Nigerian inflation.
He had said: “I believe that we are on the right track. I believe Nigerians have been patient and I also believe that a lot of goodies will now come through. There’s quite a lot of improvement because if you look at it, one of the major issues that we’ve had was the naira devaluation that has gone very aggressively up to about N1,900.
“But right now, we’re back to almost N1,250, N1,300, which is a good reprieve. Quite a lot of commodities went up. When you go to the market, for example, something that we produce locally like flour, people will charge you more. Why? Because they’re paying very high diesel prices.
“Now, in our refinery, we started selling diesel at about N1,200 instead of N1,650 and I’m sure as we go along, things will continue to improve quite a lot.
He ended by saying that this price reduction can affect the rate of inflation:
“This can help to bring inflation down immediately. And I’m sure when the inflation figures are out for the next month, you’ll see that there’s quite a lot of improvement in the inflation rate.”
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Diesel Price Watch for February 2024, the price of diesel has increased by over 50.20% year-on-year.
In the month under review, the average price of diesel across the country stood at N1,257.06 per litre with some states selling at over N1500/litre.
The Dangote refinery only began supplying diesel and aviation fuel to marketers about two weeks ago at a price of N1225 per litre after countless postponements since its inauguration in May 2023.
