OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — The aftermath of deregulation of the downstream oil sector by the federal government is beginning to take its toll on prices of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS also called petrol as Nigerians paid more for the product in September.
Average price paid by consumers for petrol increased by 10.67% year-on-year and month-on-month by 8.26% to N161.06 in September 2020 from N148.78 in August 2020, according to data from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, NBS.
States that paid the highest average price for the product were Yobe (N168.83), Taraba (N166.43) and Cross River (N165.88).
This is as states like Katsina, Niger and Zamfara had the lowest average price of petrol- Katsina (N156.40), Niger (N156.56) and Zamfara (N157.90) respectively.
On a regional level, North East paid the highest average price of N163.52 per litre, followed by South East with an average price of N162.11 per litre, and South-South with N161.72 per litre.
North Central paid N161.05 per litre, South West N160.23 per litre, and lastly, North West paid an average price of N158.35 per litre.
The federal government had in March announced deregulation of the downstream sector, giving way for market dynamics to determine prices of petroleum products as against price regulation by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA.
