Products more expensive than in Libya, Algeria, Angola
Nigeria, at 40 cents (N166) average per litre of petrol price, occupies the eighth position among countries that have the most affordable petrol prices, a study by Zutobi published in April this year has shown.
However, its petrol price per litre, benchmarked in the US Dollar, is more expensive than that of Libya (second oil producer) and Angola (third producer) in Africa, despite Nigeria being Africa’s largest crude oil producer.
This is despite an over N200bn monthly subsidy payment by the government to keep the product price at N165 per litre, with over N4tn spend pegged for the 2022 fiscal year.
According to Trading Economics, a global market website, Nigeria as of March 2022, was the largest in Africa, with 1,238 million barrels per stream day (BPD) oil production, overtaking Libya (1,220mbpsd); Angola is third, Algeria is fourth and Egypt fifth.
But according to the Zutobi research report, Nigeria is the eighth among countries with the cheapest petrol price at $0.40 (40 cents), while Libya, which is the second-largest oil producer in Africa, shares the first position of countries with the cheapest petrol price globally with Venezuela at $0.03 (03 cents).
When converted to the Nigerian Naira (NGN), Nigeria’s 40 cents per litre of petrol is N166 (at the N415/$1 exchange rate on Wednesday), while Libya and Venezuela’s 0.03 cents is N12.46 per litre.
This means, that with N166, Nigerians can buy 13 litres of petrol in Venezuela and Libya while they may not buy a litre of petrol in some Nigerian states where petrol sells for over N200/l.
Still, Algeria occupies the fifth position ahead of Nigeria in Africa with $0.32 per litre (N132/l), while Angola is in the seventh position ($0.35 – N145/l) before Nigeria’s average N166/l petrol price.
