The Chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has said that the significant cut in the diesel price to N1,200 will have a positive effect on inflation in Nigeria.
He disclosed this during a
Wednesday briefing with journalists following his homage visit to President
Bola Tinubu for Eid-el-Fitr in Lagos.
According to Dangote, there has
been considerable economic progress recently, indicating that the country is on
the right path.
Dangote stated that his
refinery is offering diesel at N1,200, below the market rate of N1,650, and he
believes this will contribute to lowering inflation in the country.
“I believe that we are on the
right track. I believe Nigerians have been patient and I also believe that a
lot of goodies will now come through. There’s quite a lot of improvement
because if you look at it, one of the major issues that we’ve had was the naira
devaluation that has gone very aggressively up to about N1,900.
“But right now, we’re back to
almost N1,250, N1,300, which is a good reprieve. Quite a lot of commodities
went up. When you go to the market, for example, something that we produce
locally like flour, people will charge you more. Why? Because they’re paying
very high diesel prices.
“Now, in our refinery, we
started selling diesel at about N1,200 instead of N1,650 and I’m sure as we go
along, things will continue to improve quite a lot.
“If you look at it now, when
you are buying N1,650 or N1,700 for a litre of diesel, and that one has been
cut off by almost two-thirds, you are now paying N1,200 for diesel.
“This can help to bring
inflation down immediately. And I’m sure when the inflation figures are out for
the next month, you’ll see that there’s quite a lot of improvement in the
inflation rate,” Dangote said.
Nigeria’s inflation rate
currently remains very high, standing at 31.70 as of February 2024, according
to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The inflation was driven mainly
by rising food prices and the removal of petrol subsidy by President Bola
Tinubu in May 2023.
In response, the Central Bank
of Nigeria (CBN) has rolled out multiple monetary measures to reduce inflationary
pressure in the country, including raising the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) – the
benchmark interest rate – to 24.75%, the highest in decades.
The newly launched Dangote
refinery has begun to distribute diesel and aviation jet fuel to domestic
marketers in the country, a move many believe will reduce inflation as well as
Nigeria’s dependence on imported petroleum products.
According to Dangote, the
reduction in the price of diesel from N1,650 to N1,200 will have a positive effect on the cost of goods
and services in the country.
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