Nigerian Government is no longer going to be releasing guiding price bands for the sale of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, at filling stations. The interplay of market forces and not the organisation now determines how much Nigerians buy the product.
Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Mr Abdulkadir Saidu, who spoke during a press briefing in Abuja, explained that the job of the agency henceforth was to ‘police’ the marketers and prevent profiteering at the expense of consumers.
Saidu, who was represented by the General Manager, Administration and Human Resources, Mr Victor Shidok, stressed that one of the reasons Nigerians were not experiencing the real impact of deregulation yet was because of the foreign exchange challenges being faced by marketers who were supposed to bring in the product.
As PMS price would be determined by the forces of demand and supply and the international cost of crude oil, it is the duty of the PPPRA to protect the consumers.