11 Months After Subsidy Removal: Nigerians Still Face Fuel Scarcity, Long Queues

Eleven months after the federal government removed fuel subsidy and opened up the market for competition, Nigerians are still grappling with the harsh realities of fuel scarcity and long queues at petrol stations across the country.

This is as oil marketers have traded blames on the current fuel scarcity as petrol queues continued to build up in major cities across the country despite assurances by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) that supply has been regular.

President Bola Tinubu removed fuel subsidy entirely on May 29, 2023 during his inauguration, and prices of petrol rose steeply across the country.

This removal of petrol subsidy was supposed to open up petrol imports to the private sector as part of provisions in the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, thus taking the monopoly of petrol importation from the NNPCL.

However, the NNPCL has for several months now returned to being the sole importer of petrol in Nigeria, as private oil firms are unable to obtain foreign currency for importation

The NNPCL had previously announced that it was no longer the sole supplier of petroleum products in the country, but the situation has changed due to forex shortages