NIGERIA spent approximately $18.7 billion on the importation of petroleum products, including premium motor spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, in 2023 from 20 countries, including those in Africa.
Analysis by Statisense, a leading AI data company specializing in financial report analysis, bank statement evaluation, and AI chatbot services, revealed these findings.
Using data from Trade Map, an online database on international trade statistics, Statisense observed that Nigeria spent $243 million importing petroleum products from African countries. The analysis, shared on their X handle, highlighted that Nigeria’s petroleum imports from Malta alone increased by $ 2.032 billion to $2.08 billion in 2023, up from $47.5 million in 2013.
Import values fluctuated between 2013 and 2016, peaking at $117.01 million in 2015. However, there were no petrol imports from Malta between 2017 and 2022.
In 2023, there was a significant leap in petroleum imports from Malta, reaching $2.08 billion. This dramatic increase has caught many by surprise.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics for the third quarter of 2023, Malta ranked among Nigeria’s top five import sources. In that quarter alone, Nigeria imported goods worth ? 561.37 billion from Malta.
Petroleum product imports accounted for about 33 percent of total imports, approximately? 36 trillion in 2023, with PMS imports making up about 21 percent of the total imports.
The recent surge in imports comes amid allegations by Aliko Dangote, chairman of Dangote Industries Limited, that some personnel of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, oil traders, and terminals have established a blending plant in Malta. Dangote stated, “Some of the terminals, some of the NNPC people, and some traders have opened blending plants somewhere off Malta. We all know these areas. We know what they are doing.”
In response to the allegations, Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC, denied owning a blending plant or being aware of any NNPC employees involved in such activities.
“To clarify the allegations regarding the blending plant, I do not own or operate any business directly or by proxy anywhere in the world except a local mini Agric venture,” Kyari said. “Neither am I aware of any employee of the NNPC that owns or operates a blending plant in Malta or anywhere else in the world,” he stated through his official X account on Tuesday.
Further aggregation of the data showed that in 2023, Nigeria’s largest petrol imports came from Togo, totaling $109.3 million, with Tunisia following at $104.35 million, according to data from Trade Map.
Meanwhile, as the country spends so much on petroleum products importation, the average cost of transportation in Nigeria has been on the increase, putting pressure on commuters’ pockets as fuel prices surged by over 150 percent.
According to a recent report by SB Morgen (SBM) Intelligence, a geopolitical research firm, the average amount Nigerians spend on transportation has risen by 77 percent.
The report, which was last updated on Friday, 26 April 2024, detailed how prices of goods and services have soared in Nigeria from the first quarter of 2023 to the end of the first quarter of 2024.
“Prices of essential commodities like soap and fuel rise over 150 percent in one year,” SBM stated.
The market intelligence firm noted that the surge can be directly linked to the increased operational expenses incurred by transportation providers, “who must grapple with the amplified cost of fuel as a primary input”.
As soon as President Bola Tinubu was sworn in May last year, he removed the petrol subsidy which gulped about N400 billion monthly from the government coffers.
Since the removal of the costly subsidy, petrol prices have almost tripled with an average price of N679 per litre as against N238 last May.
With the latest lingering fuel scarcity, the premium motor spirit now sells for around N800 per litre in many filling stations while it is sold between N1,000 and N1,500 on the black market.
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