Fuel price: NNPCL petrol discount not return subsidy regime – CPPE

The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, CPPE, has defined why the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s (NNPCL) short-term petrol worth discount does not quantity to a return to the gasoline subsidy regime abolished by the Federal Government.

CPPE mentioned the initiative was a brief intervention to cushion Nigerians towards rising petroleum costs triggered by shocks within the world power market, reasonably than a reversal of the coverage of petroleum subsidy removing.

The Chief Executive Officer of CPPE, Dr Muda Yusuf, said this in a coverage temporary issued on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, whereas addressing considerations that the gasoline worth aid initiative might undermine the federal government’s financial reforms.

According to Yusuf, the current enhance in petroleum costs was pushed largely by geopolitical tensions that pushed world crude oil costs above $100 per barrel, affecting each oil-producing and oil-importing international locations.

He argued that the event was an exterior financial shock reasonably than a consequence of Nigeria’s subsidy removing coverage.

“Such an interpretation is misleading and fails to distinguish between a fundamental policy reversal and a temporary intervention in response to an extraordinary economic shock,” Yusuf mentioned.

Explaining the distinction between the present initiative and the previous subsidy regime, CPPE mentioned the earlier association imposed a considerable fiscal burden on the federal government by subsidising nationwide petrol consumption, which was estimated at between 50 million and 90 million litres each day at completely different occasions.

The financial group famous that the previous subsidy regime positioned important stress on public funds, crowded out improvement spending and contributed to macroeconomic instability.

In distinction, CPPE mentioned the present intervention lined roughly 70 million litres of NNPCL’s gasoline provide month-to-month, in contrast with estimated nationwide petrol consumption of fifty million litres each day.

“Reinstating a broad-based consumption subsidy would recreate serious fiscal vulnerabilities and consequential distortions in the economy,” Yusuf mentioned.

“The current fuel price relief initiative should be understood as a limited response to an extraordinary global energy shock, not a reversal of the policy on petroleum subsidy removal,” he added.