The reduction in the pump price of petrol and N752 billion paid as petrol subsidy in 2019 dominate the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
The Guardian reported that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday took over the role by reducing the pump price of petrol from N113.28 per litre to N108.00 per litre across all its products loading facilities as well as in its through put operations.
The NNPC’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Kennie Obateru, quoted the Managing Director of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Musa Lawan, as saying that the new ex-depot price petrol, reflects the company’s market strategy to make more sales while complying with the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency’s (PPPRA) price template.
According to Lawan, the new price regime would enable PPMC to boost its sales volumes from the billions of litres of petrol it has in storage while providing affordable price to millions of customers.
ThisDay said that the Nigerian government paid N752 billion (about $2 billion) as petrol subsidy in 2019, a report by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has disclosed.
According to a recent report on NNPC’s operations and financial activities for the period of January 2020, the country doled out a whopping sum of N594,525,670,942 to the corporation as subsidy payments captured as under recovery in its books between January 2019 and January 2020.
The Sun newspaper said that the Nigerian government has predicted a N4.7 trillion shortfall in accretion to the Federation Account in 2020. Its projected amount for the year now stands at N3.9 trillion as against the N8.6 trillion previously proposed before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, made the disclosure in a video conferencing on Nigeria’s response to the fall in oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic, held in conjunction with the Department for International Development (DFID).
The newspaper also reported that Nigeria is losing an average of 400,000 barrels amounting to $1.5 billion monthly to the activities of sea pirates, the latest study of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said.
According to the IMB, the loss represents almost 5 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), even as it listed the Gulf of Guinea as the most dangerous piracy zone for oil companies, with huge record of attacks in recent years.
The report indicated that the first quarter of 2020 was marked by a peak in maritime piracy worldwide, where the Gulf of Guinea recorded 21 of the 47 reported attacks.
The Punch said that the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, has commended the private sectors, including Thisday and Arise Media Group for their support to the COVID-19 fight.
He gave this commendation when ThisDay and Arise Media Group in association with other partners donated a treatment and isolation centre in Abuja, as part of their contribution to contain the spread of the virus in Nigeria. The centre is located at the Thisday Dome in the Central Business District, Abuja, with a capacity for 360 beds, which could be scaled up to 500 beds.
GIK/APA