The News Chronicles has uncovered a significant shift in Nigeria’s consumption of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, following the federal government’s decision to eliminate gasoline subsidies.
Since this policy change, daily petrol usage has plummeted by an astonishing 92%.
According to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority’s (NMDPRA) Daily Truck Out Report, as of August 20, 2024, daily petrol consumption has dropped to just 4.5 million liters.
This is a sharp decline compared to May 2023, when Nigeria’s daily petrol consumption stood at 60 million liters. The drastic reduction has coincided with President Bola Tinubu’s assumption of office, following his inauguration and the subsequent removal of the long-standing petrol subsidy.
The report also highlights that only 16 out of Nigeria’s 36 states received petrol allocations from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) during this period. As a result, states that did not receive any allocations in August experienced severe petrol shortages, which disrupted transportation and daily activities.
Among the states that received allocations, Niger State had the highest distribution, with 21 trucks delivering a total of 940,000 liters of petrol daily. Lagos, the nation’s economic hub, received 12 trucks carrying 726,001 liters per day, while Kaduna received the same number of trucks but with a smaller allocation of 454,001 liters.
Smaller allocations were also recorded in states like Sokoto, Ogun, Osun, Gombe, Benue, Ekiti, and Kebbi. Oyo received 12 trucks, Kano 9 trucks, and Ondo 6 trucks.
The subsidy removal, announced by President Tinubu on May 29, 2023, was deemed necessary due to the unsustainable cost of the system. Over the past decade, the subsidy had drained approximately N12 trillion from government coffers, contributing significantly to Nigeria’s mounting debt.
Despite the immediate impact on petrol consumption and availability, Tinubu’s decision to end the subsidy is seen as a key step toward economic reform.
