Lagos, Sept. 17, 2024 – Muda Yusuf, the Director General of the Centre for Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), says the public dramatisation of petrol prices by NNPCL and Dangote Refinery is not good for Nigeria’s image.
Yusuf said this on Tuesday while speaking on “The Morning Brief”, a programme of the Channels Television.
He said such public dramatiation of the petrol prices by NNPCL and Dangote, as exhibited on Monday, could erode investor confidence on Nigeria and scare away investors.
“I’m worried about the dramatisation of the cost the NNPCL is buying from Dangote.
“Coming to the public space to exchange the things we’re hearing. I don’t think it’s good for the economy, it’s not good for our perception and it’s not good for investors’ confidence,” he said.
Yusuf said it would be difficult for the federal government to jettison petrol subsidy now due to the low social safety net for the poor and vulnerables in the country.
“We cannot walk away so quickly from this problem of subsidy otherwise it would make life extremely difficult. Things are already very difficult.
“Up until now the NNPCL was subsidizing although progressively, the level of subsidy is being reduced which is fine, but to talk of a complete deregulation of the whole system in an economy without a social safety net will not be appropriate at all.”
Yusuf said the citizens were already economically overstretched, while the petrol price hike had worsened their situation.
“The economy is about human beings and we need to recognise that because we are driving the citizens almost to their limits,” he said.
The CPPE boss said total deregulation of petrol price was not possible in a country like Nigeria without safety net for the citizens to fall back on.
He advised the government to reduce the demand for imported products through import substitution across all sectors of the economy.
“If we’re able to move that pressure away, it will have a significant impact on the exchange rate. If progressively we can look inward and reduce import, we’ll be making progress,” he said.
