The Federal Government has fixed the new pump price of motor spirit at N212 per litre, an upsurge of about 14 percent from its last price of N186.
The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) made the announcement in a release on Thursday night.
According to PPPRA, a litre of fuel would now be sold for prices ranging from N209 to N212 per litre for March compared to the N186 it retailed for in February.
This is coming just 11 days after the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) promised there would be no price hike for fuel.
On February 28, NNPC spokesman, Kennie Obateru, gave the assurance in a statement, in reaction to the long queues in some states.
“Contrary to speculations of an imminent increase in the price of PMS in the country, the NNPC has ruled out any increment in the ex-depot price of petrol in March,” he noted.
In a template published on its website, the PPPRA explained that the increment was due to the market determinants and importation costs.
“The expected ex-depot price for wholesale products marketers now stands at N206.42 per litre.
“The addition of retailers’ margin of N6.19 per litre would bring the expected retail price (lower band) N209.61 per litre and expected retail price (upper band) N212.61 per litre”, it stated.
Recently, the Federal Government said it has concluded plans to hold a national conference aimed at reducing the price of petrol to N100 per litre.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Ita Enang, at a news conference on Tuesday in Abuja said the meeting would hold on March 16 and 17.
Enang noted that the summit’s outcome would help to crash the country’s prices of petroleum products.
“As the cost of crude goes higher, the price of refined petroleum products goes higher, but if we refine these petroleum products in Nigeria, the cost will be very low.
“The intendment of the conference is to mobilise these resources so that we can bring the prices of refined petroleum products down to below N100 per litre,” he said.