The Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) has said ending subsidy payment on petrol is the only option for the federal government in light of current economic realities.
A statement posted on MOMAN’s website on Friday quoted its Chairman, Olumide Adeosun, to have made the statement at the just concluded Association of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria (NAEC) Strategic International Conference in Lagos.
Adeosun admitted that it was an extremely difficult thing to do and called for massive investment by the government in various sectors such as mass transportation, healthcare and education to successfully wean off Nigerians from petrol subsidy.
Represented by Mr Clement Isong, the Chief Executive Officer, MOMAN, Adeosun said it would remain extremely difficult to wean Nigerians off cheap petrol.
“We are told that this year the subsidy bill to the Federal Government may be between N5 trillion and N6 trillion. Clearly, Nigeria cannot afford this.
“We need to begin to remove the subsidy and mitigate the pains Nigerians will feel when petroleum prices begin to manifest their true value,” the MOMAN chairman said.
Adeosun said marketers were optimistic that the industry was headed in the right direction with the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 which was an excellent piece of legislation.
“We are now at the point of implementation, which is taking a bit longer than hoped but this is not necessarily a bad thing.
“The President postponed the implementation of free market pricing, which has caused a slowdown with respect to benefits expected from free competitive open market pricing, such as new investments and subsidy removal, ” he said.
Adeosun said the marketers were also convinced that (the decade of gas declared by the Federal Government in January 2021) was clearly the way forward.
He said, however, the increase in gas prices worldwide and the unavailability of the product had made it a little more difficult in the roll out.
According to him, while the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has an important role to play in guiding our future, the best regulator ultimately is the market.
