The Central Bank of Nigeria on Wednesday said it had little or no control over the price of fuel or foreign exchange rate.
A principal manager with the CBN, Osagie Clement, stated this when he appeared before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the recent hike in the price of fuel.
According to Clement, the demand for PMS has gone down by 30 per cent due to its low demand following the price hike.
He further added that every month, $150 million is spent on PMS importation from the CBN intervention even as he urged the Federal Government to discourage importation and encourage local production, which he said would reduce the current challenges.
He said, “In the PMS market, perhaps it is envisaged that there is no more subsidy, no more bottlenecks. So, it becomes a real market enterprise. More people will come into the business and the competition will bring the price down,” he said.
Also speaking, the Executive Director of distribution systems of the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Agency, Ogbugo Ukoha, told the ad-hoc committee that the market forces of demand and supply determine the price of PMS.
This is just as he added that the Petroleum Industry Act has given regulators powers to intervene to ensure best practices and curtail unnecessary profiteering.
He said, “PIA has given the authority enormous power to intervene to avoid cartel building which is why we have introduced competition and to also deal with illegal profiteering and more importantly to work with the Federal Consumers Protection Council in relation to consumer protection.”
Earlier, Chairman of the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee probing the recent hike in the price of fuel, Babajide Benson, pointed out that the PIA has given the regulator enormous powers to intervene to prevent profiteering even as he noted that the low demand for petrol due to its hike was worrisome.
