President of Dangote Group and Africa’s richest man has said that the price of Dangote Refinery’s petrol is 15 percent cheaper than the ones imported by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
The billionaire disclosed this in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Monday.
His comments were weeks after NNPCL disclosed that it bought petrol from Dangote Refinery at N898 per liter upon lifting the company’s locally made petrol on September 15, 2024.
The development had led to NNPCL’s announcement of new petrol price which rose to between N950 and N1,100 across filling stations in the country.
The petrol price controversy between NNPCL and Dangote Refinery had created confusion in the oil and gas sector more than a week ago.
However, Dangote clarified that at the time NNPCL bought its petrol, the state-owned oil firm also imported about 800,000 metric tons of imported gasoline, insisting that his product was cheaper than the one imported.
According to him, the petrol NNPCL announced that it bought Dangote Petrol was not the real price but the cost after the company had added profit and other expenses.
He stressed that Nigerians do not know how much NNPCL spent on importing petrol, noting that it was 15 percent more expensive than Dangote Petrol.
“There wasn’t a disagreement, per se. NNPC bought from us on the 15th of September at the international price, which they also bought, about 800,000 metric tons of gasoline imported.
“So the one that they bought from us is cheaper than the one they are importing.
“And so when they announced our price, the guy, I don’t know whether he was authorized. It wasn’t the real price. What they have announced is most likely what it cost them, including profit and other expenses.
“And then the other one is one that they imported. But the people don’t know how much they spend in terms of imports, but their importation is almost, maybe about 15 percent more expensive than ours, you know.
“So what they are supposed to do is to sell at a basket price, or if they want to remove subsidy, they can announce that they will remove subsidy, which is okay, everybody you know, will adjust it.”
Dangote had earlier stated that the Nigerian Government should completely remove fuel subsidy.
Meanwhile, recall that petrol marketers had disclosed that they bought NNPCL’s imported petrol at an average of N870 per liter.
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