Nigeria Imports 60.4bn Litres of Petrol in 32 Months Amid FX Crisis

Average pump price hits N796 in Kebbi Retail price in North-west now N701.60

With zero local production of petrol in the 32 months spanning January 2021 to August 2023 and amid dwindling FX inflow, Nigeria imported 60.428 billion litres of petrol from Europe, THISDAY investigation has revealed.

However, data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicated that the country which imports most of its fuels from Belgium, The Netherlands, Norway and India, ranging between 1.4 billion litres and 2.5 billion litres per month, massively slashed import to 1 billion litres in August.

With an import circle of roughly 30 to 60 days, the fall in petrol import in August may not be unconnected with the removal of fuel subsidy on May 29 by President Bola Tinubu.

Nigeria is currently undergoing a massive foreign exchange crisis, because the import of petroleum products gulps about 30 per cent of total FX earnings.

But in November 2023, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), said it would end the importation of refined petroleum products by December 2024 as all the country's refineries would be operational by then.

Nigeria is therefore banking on the two refineries in Port Harcourt, the ones in Warri and Kaduna, which are currently at different stages of rehabilitation, as well as the Dangote refinery, where it has a 20 per cent stake, to boost local production this year.

According to NBS data, in 2021, the country imported approximately 22.415 billion litres, which then grew to 23.553 billion litres in 2022, and then brought in fuel amounting to 14.477 billion litres in the month of August 2023, to hit roughly 60.428 billion litres during the period under consideration.

Specifically, in the first half of 2023, the information showed that truck out stood at 11.48 billion litres, indicating a 5.83 per cent decrease when compared to 12.19 billion litres recorded in the first half of 2022.

In terms of imported products, 11.94 billion litres of the product were imported in the first half of 2023, relative to 11.56 billion litres in the corresponding period of 2022, showing an increase of 3.29 per cent.

In 2017, the federal government stated that fuel imports alone gulped 30 per cent of Nigeria's FX earnings, with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) re-echoing in 2022 that when petrochemicals are added, the amount will soar to 40 per cent.

Also, the figures from the latest NBS document, noted that average retail price paid by consumers for petrol in January 2024 was N668.30, indicating a 159.92 per cent increase when compared to the value recorded in January 2023, which was N257.12.

Likewise, comparing the average price value with the previous month, that is, December 2023, the average retail price decreased by 0.53 per cent from N671.86.

On state profile analysis, Kebbi State had the highest average retail price for the product at N796.67 while Zamfara and Taraba states were next, with N771.43 and N704.11, respectively.

But Kwara, Niger and Kogi States had the lowest average retail prices for petrol, at N614.90, 624.04 and 626.79 respectively.