Nigeria imported 12.3 million metric tons of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol in the first seven months of 2022, making it a total of 202.9 million metric tons since 2015.
This was disclosed by Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Anwal Gambo at a hearing of the House of Representatives ad hoc Committee investigating the volume of fuel consumed daily in Nigeria, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
This comes as Nigeria’s subsidy consumption has nearly doubled in ten years, with FG recently projecting to spend over N6 trillion in subsidy by 2023.
What the Navy Chief is saying
Represented by Admiral Olusola Oluwagbire, Gambo said, “202.9 million metric tonnes of fuel was imported into the country from January 2015 to date.
“From our records, the amount of PMS imported from 2015 to July 2022, that is, the total quantity of PMS imported from all sources, NNPC, PPMC, OMTC, into Nigeria, amounts to 202.9 million metric tons.
“And for the first seven months of 2022 so far, from our records, 12.3 million metric tons of PMS have been imported,” he said.
The Navy Chief added that it arrested 174 vessels for various offences from January 2017 to July 2022 as seizures are handed over to either the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps ( NSCDC), depending on the nature of the seizures.
What you should know
- The costs of fuel subsidy in Nigeria increased by 890% over a five year period (2017-2021) in Nigeria even though fuel prices have only increased by 12.1%, according to a SBM Intelligence report titled “Growing fuel prices and transport costs: Which way Nigeria.”
- The report stated that between 2017 and 2018, the cost of fuel subsidy had increased by a whopping 405% yet fuel price remained constant all through.
- Nairametrics reported earlier this year that Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki challenged the Federal Government’s plans to spend on petrol subsidy based on 70 million litres a day consumption, stating that Nigeria’s fuel consumption cannot be more than 35 million litres a day, and hinted that Nigeria could be subsidizing fuel for neighbouring West African states.
