TheCable

Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited, has failed to elaborate on the take-off date for the removal of petrol subsidy

The NNPC GMD spoke with state house correspondents on the need to remove petrol subsidy on Tuesday after meeting with President Bola Tinubu.

He blamed panic-buying for the queues that surfaced in parts of the country after the president’s inaugural speech on Monday.

“All of us must have seen the importance of what exactly this means. And typically consumers will rush to the fuel station to fill their tanks. And that is why you’re seeing these queues,” he said.

“And also for marketers, they would like to see what exactly this means in the sense that… ‘so how are we going to sell the product if subsidy on PMS is removed’ — and the combination of the two is what you are seeing; the obvious dislocation of distribution.

“And we believe that this will go away very, very quickly…”

‘WE ARE NOT ABLE TO INVEST’

Kyari said the continued payment of petrol subsidy creates a situation whereby the NNPC is not “able to invest in our core businesses”.

“And at the end result is that it can be a huge challenge for the company. And we have highlighted this severally to government that they must compensate NNPC, they must pay back NNPC for the money that we have spent on the subsidy,” he added.

“Fortunately, also by virtue of the provisions of the law and also the Appropriation Act 2023, it is no longer available for that funding and we are very convinced today that the country can no longer fund this subsidy bill and they will not be able to pay NNPC.”

Kyari said the NNPC is happy with the president’s “commitment to the elimination of this subsidy because they can’t afford it anymore”.