What are they insinuating?
Is the contract of fuel importantation based on the forces of demand and supply at the international market?
If this is the case, then Nigerians need to be told what was happening when it was less than $50 per barrel, so we will understand what they are saying now.

pawesome:
no no no....not just west africa....the whole world

No no, not just the whole world

but Ever......In the history of mankind

cashlurd:
Disaster is looming. Nigeria will know no peace. Buhari is the worst president in West African history. cHANgE!!!

Seconded!!!!

Spylord48:
.Goodluck Jonathan promised us as many refineries as possible and total turn around of the existing ones during the 2011presidential campaign yet after 4years there is nothing to show for it instead trillions were wasted in enriching few individuals all in the name of subsidy.
Buhari came during his own time and promised refineries and modular one yet up till now no modular refineries.The dead woods we have in Ph, kaduna and warri have all turned to scrap with no hope of rehabilitating it...
Now everybody is hoping on dangote to complete his refinery this year so that fuel price will drop..Dangote is a business man and anybody expecting the price of petrol to reduce is dreaming because he will like to make money and pay back his creditors. We are in for a serious trouble.The greedy few cabals are already scheming on how to make profit even when dangote refinery will come on board.

Our past governments have failed us!
The present government is already failing us day by day!!!
Will the future government come 2019 fail us too?

Time to rise and send this old cargoes and failure into political exile. If we don't act now they will keep failing us and nothing will happen

You've said It all, But the problem is Nigeria's poor masses "Living on less than $2 per day" are the most useless, gullible, hypocrite people in the world. They don't want to die. About the average, rich & wealthy, Don't even expect them to participate in any thing to bring down the current government because they are at least comfortable. Besides i won't deceive u, It can never be well with Nigeria because It has Too many Problems to dealt with starting from Ethnicity, Dishonesty, Cruelty, Just to mention Few. Except GOD wipe off Nigeria & everything Inside It off the face of Earth & Re-create it. That's only way the country would be better. I'm not swearing It's a confirmed fact, Nigeria Is Cursed.

ReubenE:

The funny thing most people don't know is Dangote's refinery is in a free trade zone.
The implication is that he can even sell to foreigners if that's what profits his business without government having nothing to do about it.

I wonder why a government and a nation is waiting for just one individual to cure their disease, with they not making attempts

Very terrible leadership. I know i have given Up on Nigeria Long ago...but mehnnnn..smh

HAH:
I don't how true it is but I heard the 450000 barrels for local consumption is actually being swapped for petrol, no money is paid out.

Another option the government can follow to remedy this problem is by strengthening the naira to be like 220-250 for a dollar in actual sense the naira is currently undervalued for an economy with excess of 40 billion in reserves, the CBN can simple do that by more injection of liquidity and lifting of ban on some fx prohibited items.

If dollar is 220 the value of 145 that we buy petrol for will be higher than what it is and landing cost will be like 120

Swaps are actually more subject to hidden transactions and manipulation. In 1984, buhari tried counter-trade ie exchange crude for commodities. It was abused. Also in that period there was a company NNSC - Nigerian National Supply Company - that was the sole importer of essential commodities ie soap, milk etc. We were queuing to buy soap at stores. Just like NNPC is the major importer of fuel and there are queues. Government intervention in the markets breeds corruption and inefficiency.

The government is applying same policies buhari tried in 1984 that failed.

Unfortunately our reserves even at 40b cannot sustain a regular and voluminous intervention in the FX market to make the naira rise. It's easier to reduce fuel imports by selling the refineries to make it work. OBJ did so but it was reversed by UmYA. To tease back the foreign capital that have left the country since 2015. And all we need to do so are just the right policies.

As it is even the government has given up. We are all waiting for dangote's refinery. Ironically he bought one of the nnpc refinery then. By now he would have turned it around years ago.

nwanna89:
Nigeria makes more money when oil prices are high, now $70 per barrel. Channel the extra money made from oil into importing petrol. Simple! So you make from one side and lose on the other.

Silly government! Deregulate the damn thing and let people easily build refineries and others who want to import be allowed to import. You cant have yeye regulations for products you dont even have

Yes we make more money when oil prices are high, but we spend more also and now that dollar is 305 we are even spending more than we spent considering when dollars was 150 also the fuel we import caters to only about 60-70% of our consumption which is very high. All these factors makes it impossible to sustain the system that is in place now.

Also deregulation is a myth... because deregulation is a form of regulation. For instance if nnpc deregulates and marketers still fault due to some problems or the other it is still the same nnpc/government who will come and save the IPMAN with new regulations because the sector is just too big for unwanted supervision.

watch and see, petrol price will soon be increased to 200 naira...and as usual Nigerians will only grumble In their bellies...and after a while get adjusted to it

ninetiethcrown7:


Yes we make more money when oil prices are high, but we spend more also and now that dollar is 305 we are even spending more than we spent considering when dollars was 150 also the fuel we import caters to only about 60-70% of our consumption which is very high. All these factors makes it impossible to sustain the system that is in place now.

Also deregulation is a myth... because deregulation is a form of regulation. For instance if nnpc deregulates and marketers still fault due to some problems or the other it is still the same nnpc/government who will come and save the IPMAN with new regulations because the sector is just too big for unwanted supervision.

You make valid points. But i think importing fuel should be like importing any other commodity like electronics or cars. When it arrives, govt should just make sure the fuel is of good quality before it is allowed in. Then importer can sell at whatever price they want. Competition will certainly drive prices lower.

This should the short term solution while the govt encourages those who want to invest into refineries to do so without unnecessary bottlenecks.