•Tinubu
Nigerians have lamented that despite the reduction in the price of petrol, transporters have failed to effect a reduction in transport fares nationwide.
These angry Nigerians added that instead, the prices are still going up, reports The PUNCH.
It was earlier reported on December 19, 2024, that the Dangote refinery reduced the ex-depot price of its petrol from N970 to N899.50 per litre.
This sparked intense pricing competition in the downstream sector, forcing the NNPCL to reduce its ex-depot price to N899 per litre.
Similarly, the refinery announced its partnership with MRS Petrol station to sell petrol from its retail outlets nationwide at N935 per litre, to the delight of Nigerians.
President of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, has clarified that the recent reduction in the price of Premium Motor Spirit, commonly known as petrol, to N899.50 per litre at its loading gantry was primarily driven by the complex dynamics of market forces.
However, Nigerians have lamented that though there is a reduction in the petrol price, transporters have failed to reflect the change in the transport fare.
An X User, #AsiwajuOladimeji posted, “When PMS was N1,200 a litre, transporters increased transport fares. The price of PMS has come down and there is no reduction in the transport fares. Sometimes it’s not about the government. We are also greedy as human beings.”
Another X User, #Arakunrin, stated, “While the harsh reality is that our people are avaricious. The normal fare from Oshodi to Iyana-Ipaja is N500, but after the price of fuel increased, it went up to N700. Now that the price of fuel came down before Christmas it is N1000. This has left me wondering all day,”
A user, #Brendan Champion, opined that the slight reduction in fuel price is not enough to trigger a reduction in transportation costs.
#Undisputed pointed out that the rate the drivers were collecting when the fuel price was N1200 was not enough.
“The fare the drivers were collecting when the price was N1200 wasn’t even enough. If you want to a drastic reduction, then effect a drastic reduction in the fuel price to at least what it was before,”
Another user, #Wemmy, said, “I am not a transporter, but the increase in transport fares was not equal to the increase in the fuel. There was over a 500 per cent increase in fuel price but the increase in transport fares never passed 100 to 200 per cent.”
Also, a user, #Agha Nigerian, said, “It is pathetic honestly speaking. This is what we are discussing now. Imagine the transport fare from Berger to Mowe is now N1000 just because of the programme at the Redeem Camp.”
Another user, Linus Lincoln, said that the amount which members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers are charging drivers is too much.
NACCIMA reacts
Meanwhile, the President of the National Association of Chambers of Commerce Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Mr Dele Oye, mentioned that the major cause was the dollar.
“The main thing that affects all the prices is the dollar. The dollar is affecting power, it is affecting everything in our lives. Because we are a demand economy,” Oye said.
According to him, another major factor is the fact that Nigeria is not a supply economy.
“We are not a supply economy. A demand economy means most of the things you use are goods from outside Nigeria. If we were a supply economy, it would be that most of the things we can produce, like Turkey, which is a supply economy,” he said.
The NACCIMMA president stated that Nigeria’s production capacity can’t handle 30 per cent of the country’s needs.
“Our production capacity is not even 30 per cent of our needs. So that’s why everything, all the vehicles on the road, imagine all of them, 99 per cent are imported,” Oye stated.
He maintained that the only way Nigeria’s economy can grow is to provide single-digit capital for the private sector.
“Once they have those single digits, it will increase production and people will be able to buy the goods. Import substitution,” he advised.
