The 20 billion dollar Dangote Petroleum Refinery has slashed the price of diesel by 16.6 percent to 1,000 naira per litre, from 1, 200 naira per litre to assist in impacting Nigeria’s domestic economy.
The price of diesel was relatively high for months, due mainly to the importation of the product from the global market and the foreign exchange crisis associated with it.
In a statement, the company stated: “In an unprecedented move, Dangote Petroleum Refinery has announced a further reduction of the price of diesel from 1200 to 1,000 naira per litre.
“While rolling out the products, the refinery supplied at a substantially reduced price of N1,200 per litre three weeks ago, representing over 30 per cent reduction from the previous market price of about N1,600 per litre.’
According to the company, “This significant reduction in the price of diesel, at Dangote Petroleum Refinery, is expected to positively affect all the spheres of the economy and ultimately reduce the high inflation rate in the country.”
Recently, the Chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, said that his refinery’s capacity to sell diesel at greatly reduced prices would offer immediate relief to Nigeria’s inflation challenges.
Dangote revealed that his refinery had been selling diesel at N1,200 per litre, compared to the previous market price of N1,650–N1,700.
He added that he was expecting a dramatic reduction in fuel costs to help drive down inflation in the coming months.
Dangote made this known while speaking with newsmen after visiting President Bola Tinubu to celebrate Eid-El-Fitr in Lagos. He said: “There’s quite a lot of improvement because, if you look at it here, one of the major issues that we’ve had was the narrow devaluation that has gone very aggressively up to about N1,900.
“But right now we’re back to almost N1,250 or N1,300, which is a good improvement. “And you can see quite a lot of things have actually gone up. Even people now when you go to the market, for example, something that we produce locally, like flour or whatever, people will charge you more.
“Why? Because they’re paying very high diesel prices. And what we did, for example, in our refinery, we started selling even diesel at about 1,200 for 1,650. “And I’m sure, you know, as we go along, things will continue to improve quite a lot.
“Well, even now it’s a lot of impact. If you look at it now, when you are buying N1,650, N1,700 for a liter of diesel, and that one has been cut off by almost one-third to now be paying diesel at 1,200.”