A fresh report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown that the price of petrol soared to over 200% in the space of 12 months.
The report titled ‘Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol) Price Watch (November 2023)’, showed that from November 2022, the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) which was recorded at ₦202.48 per liter, had risen by 220.49% to ₦648.93 per liter in November 2023.
The report further revealed that the three states with the highest average price of petrol were Kebbi State, Jigawa and Akwa Ibom states.
A detailed report of the petrol pump price by states showed that Kebbi state led the states with the highest retail price of petrol at ₦691.00. Jigawa followed closely with ₦677.67 while Akwa Ibom state came in third position with petrol pump price of ₦675.00 per litre.
Some states also recorded the lowest average retail prices of petrol according to the report. Three states, Taraba, Kaduna and Lagos States recorded the lowest average retail prices for PMS at ₦618.00, ₦620.29 and ₦623.12 respectively.
On a zonal scale, the South-South zone recorded the highest average retail price of petrol at ₦663.59, while the lowest average retail preice of petrol was recorded in the North East Zone at ₦632.75.
The report showed that the spike in price of petrol started in June 2023, shortly after the decision to remove petrol subsidy was announced by the Tinubu-led administration.
As of May 2023, the average pump price of petrol stood at ₦238.11. It spiked to ₦545.83 in June 2023. It further increased to ₦600.35 in July and had reached ₦626.70 by August 2023.
The average pump price of petrol had remained within the ₦600 bracket in September, October and November as the figures stood at ₦626.21, ₦630,63 and ₦648.93 respectively.