Minister denies plans to increase fuel price to N97

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Dr. Ibe Kachikwu has revealed that the Federal Government has no plans to increase fuel price to N97.

This is contrary to reports published in the media that the government was planning to remove oil subsidy and increase fuel price.

According to Daily Trust Newspapers, Kachikwu said “I did not say that refined product will sell for N97 next year that is not what I said. I said that between the band of N87 and N97 we are going to look at prices.

“Today the prices are largely close to N87 so there might be no need to change prices. By January oil may well go up slightly by February it may go slightly, by April it may come down, it is all a dynamics of what the price of crude is.”

He also said “I have not put a certain figure, myself and PPPRA we will sit down and do those calculations and be able to announce what price PMS will sell for in January. We do not anticipate any shift in the price of crude today.”

The minister also said President Buhari was concerned about the hardship the poor will face if fuel prices increase.

“One thing we are committed to next year is to reduce the level of federal government subsidy if any to the industry so that the industry can grow on its own strength. You can do that without the mechanism of saying subsidy is being removed or whatever but have a benchmark approach to setting prices,” Kachikwu said.

Dr. Ibe Kachikwu is an Alumnus of the prestigious Havard Law School.

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