The Dangote Petroleum Refinery is offering Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), generally known as diesel, at a reduced price of N1000 per litre. This is less than the N1200 per litre that the refinery was quoting two weeks ago.
Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the chairman of the Dangote Group, has previously declared that the refinery will begin selling diesel at a lower price as part of efforts to lower the high rate of inflation in the nation.
At that time, he said: “We started selling diesel at our refinery for about N1,200 now, instead of N1,650, and I’m sure things will continue to improve quite a bit as we go along.”
“If you look at it now, you are paying N1,200 for diesel, when you used to be paying N1,650 or N1,700 for a litre of the fuel, and that one has been cut off by almost two-thirds.”
“This may contribute to an instant reduction in inflation. And you’ll notice that there has been a significant improvement in the inflation rate when the data for the upcoming month are released.”
The wealthy businessman said that the naira’s decline in the foreign exchange market was the reason for the product’s notable cost increase, but he also mentioned that diesel prices will eventually decline as long as the naira’s recovery continues.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Diesel Price Watch for February 2024, the cost of diesel has climbed by more than 50.20% annually. During the month under examination, the national average price of diesel was N1,257.06 per litre, with many states selling it for more than N1500.
After multiple delays since its opening in May 2023, the Dangote refinery only started providing diesel and aviation fuel to marketers around two weeks ago at a cost of N1225 per litre.
