By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The federal government has said that Petrol pricing will be fully deregulated before end of this year.
The Minister of State (Petroleum) Timipre Sylva made this known while speaking at the University of Ibadan during the opening of the 56th Annual International Conference and Exhibition of the Nigeria Mining and Geoscience Society (NMGS).
Sylva was responding on whether a new price template of N206 per litre from N162 – N163 for March is about to be introduced.
He said: “We have been talking about deregulation for decades. Unfortunately, we have not succeeded. We have succeeded in deregulating some products.
“Kerosene has been fully deregulated; diesel has been fully deregulated. But deregulation of PMS (petrol) has continued to elude us. We expect that this year, we will be able to achieve that.
“But, before we do that, we want to apply the principle of tolling the roads. Before you toll a road, you are expected to give an alternative.
“So, what we want to do for Nigerians is to give a credible and cheaper fuel as an alternative before we fully deregulate and we believe we will be able to achieve this later this year.
“And this, of course, is going to be a responsible way of also maintaining our environment.”
