President Muhammadu
Buhari has said that for now, fuel price remains N87 per litre. President Buhari
said this Monday while presenting the 2016 Appropriation Bill to the National
Assembly.
He said though the
government was working to diversify the economy, it would not lose sight of the
need to restructure the oil and gas sector which, he noted, had been marred by
corruption and plagued with inefficiencies.
Buhari said he had
accordingly directed the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA)
to adjust its pricing template to reflect competitive and market driven
components.
"We believe
this can lower input costs and attain efficiency savings that will enable PPPRA
to keep the selling price for all marketers of petrol at N87 per litre for
now", the president emphasised.
Buhari said the
current fuel scarcity "with long queues at petrol stations all over the
country causing social dislocation" was very unfortunate.
The president said
that the federal government profoundly apologised to Nigerians for this
"prolonged hardship and misery".
According to him,
the current fuel scarcity "is as a result of market speculators and
resistance to change by some stakeholders".
He assured that
the government was working very hard to end the shortages and bring fuel to the
pumps all over the country.
He said he had
also directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to explore
alternate funding models that would "enable us to honour our obligations
in Joint Ventures (JVs) and deep offshore fields".
Buhari said his
administration was confident that these measures could be achieved and would
lower the burden "that the traditional cash calls have imposed on our
budget and cash flows as well as contribute towards shoring up our national
reserves".
-Daily Trust
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