By Adedapo Adesanya
Africa’s richest man and major owner of the Dangote Refinery, Mr Aliko Dangote, has assured Nigerians that from now on, the price of a litre of an Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), otherwise known as diesel, should not go beyond N1,200.
In a chat with journalists on Wednesday after an Eid-el-Fitr visit to President Bola Tinubu in Lagos, Mr Dangote praised Nigerians for their patience, noting that, “I believe that we are on the right track. I believe Nigerians have been patient and I also believe that a lot of goodies will now come through.
“There’s quite a lot of improvement because if you look at it, one of the major issues that we’ve had was the Naira devaluation that has gone very aggressively up to about N1,900 but right now, we’re back to almost N1,250- N1,300, which is a good reprieve.”
He explained that high fuel costs had driven food commodities, which account for about 15 per cent of inflationary pressure, but noted that following the sale of diesel from his new refinery, Nigeria’s inflation at a multi-year high of 31.7 per cent, should begin to ease.
“Quite a lot of commodities went up. When you go to the market, for example, something that we produce locally like flour, people will charge you more. Why? Because they’re paying very high diesel prices.
“Now, in our refinery, we started selling diesel at about N1,200 instead of N1,650 and I’m sure as we go along, things will continue to improve quite a lot,” Mr Dangote stated.
He said prices had dropped to around 30 per cent and that this would have effect on the cost of commodities.
“If you look at it now, when you are buying N1,650 or N1,700 for a litre of diesel, and that one has been cut off by almost two-thirds, you are now paying N1,200 for diesel.
“Maybe, going forward, even though the crude prices are going up, I believe people will not get it much higher than what it is today, ₦1,200. It might be even a little bit lower, but that can help quite a lot because if you are transporting locally-produced goods and you were paying N1,650, now you are paying two-thirds of that amount, N1,200. It’s a lot of difference. People don’t know.
“This can help to bring inflation down immediately. And I’m sure when the inflation figures are out for the next month, you’ll see that there’s quite a lot of improvement in the inflation rate.
“So, a step at a time. And I’m sure the government is working around the clock to make sure that things get much better because it is in the interest of everybody that things get better.”
Modupe Gbadeyanka