The Federal Government has revealed that they cannot interfere in the rising price of diesel and aviation fuel as the price for both products are deregulated.
This was made known to the public in a statement by the Minister of State Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva while speaking in Abuja yesterday.
Sylva received that the price of diesel and aviation fuel, which are imported, are being impacted by foreign exchange rate.
In his words, he said “So, it is not within the purview of the government to fix the prices at all. And of course, the actual issue is also the foreign exchange. People cannot access foreign exchange to import this. For the time being, NNPC has been the main importer of this product but what we are trying to do is to democratise the importation so that the aviation fuel users themselves should be able to access foreign exchange and be able to import this product”.
“It’s not a supply issue at all. It’s just a global problem. You know that the problem in Ukraine and Russia has actually exacerbated the rise in prices; it is not in Nigeria alone. The high cost of diesel is also because of the same reason and these are not subsidised commodities, they are deregulated commodities so actually, it is not within the purview of the government to intervene in the price,” Sylva said.