Petrol Discount Eludes Motorists as NNPCL Pump Price Returns to N1,405

Weeks after the federal government announced a 30-day petrol discount to ease the cost-of-living squeeze, most Nigerian motorists say they are still paying full price at the pump, with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) returning its retail price to N1,405 a litre.

The state oil company raised the price by N35 from N1,370 on Friday, according to attendants at its stations, reversing a cut made only days earlier and coming even as the discount scheme it runs with the finance ministry remains in force. The company has not publicly explained the adjustment.

A discount that most drivers cannot reach

Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele announced the intervention on October 8, under which NNPC Retail would forgo margin and sell petrol at cost for 30 days, with priority for commercial transporters. In practice, the relief has taken the form of a N66-per-litre reduction available only to customers who pay through NNPC's mobile application at self-service dispensers, bringing the effective price to N1,339 rather than N1,405.

Motorists who pay at the pump, or who lack smartphones, data or the willingness to download the app and supply personal details including their Bank Verification Number, do not benefit. Checks by reporters in Abuja, Kaduna, Kano, Kwara, Rivers and Bayelsa found stations still selling between N1,370 and N1,420, with independent marketers in some places charging up to N1,500.

Fares and food prices barely budge

Commercial drivers interviewed across the northern and southern states said transport fares had not fallen since the discount was announced, because the scheme's savings are small and unevenly available. One transporter in Ilorin calculated that a full tank of about 70 litres still costs close to N100,000 and argued that only a pump price near N1,000 would materially change his margins.

Economists say this is the arithmetic problem at the heart of the intervention: at a discount of N66 a litre for app users, a 31-litre purchase saves roughly N2,046, an amount too small to reshape household budgets or encourage fare reductions. Analysts have also noted that the scheme cannot hold down prices for long while crude oil trades near $110 a barrel and the exchange rate remains under pressure.

The wider pricing battle

The government is separately negotiating a N1,350 ceiling on the ex-gantry or landing cost of petrol, a proposal major marketers have already rejected. With the landing cost already close to that level, the ceiling would bind immediately if introduced, raising the question of who absorbs the difference between market costs and the advertised price.

What comes next

The discount runs until October 31, and pump prices will depend on crude, the naira and the refinery gantry price in November. For households, the experience so far is a lesson in the limits of headline interventions: until a price cut shows up at the meter on the forecourt, it has not really happened.