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Winding queues have returned to filling stations in cities across Nigeria following the remarks by President Bola Tinubu at his inauguration on Monday that fuel subsidies were to be removed.
He gave no timeframe or any more details of this major policy move, but it has sparked panic-buying.
“It only favours the rich and not the poor and has become increasingly expensive to maintain,” Mr Tinubu told the crowd in Abuja, the country’s capital.
Given the uncertainty about whether the subsidy removal was effective immediately, people have rushed out to stock up.
Residents in Lagos and Abuja are paying as high as 600 naira ($1.30; £1) a litre, a jump from the 185 naira it was selling at on Monday.
Nigeria’s state-owned oil company, the sole importer of petroleum products, assured the public that it had enough supplies.
Economists say the removal of subsidies will lead to the higher cost of transportation, an increase in production costs and commodity prices.
Nigeria is Africa’s second-largest producer of oil, behind Angola, but imports more than 90% of its fuel needs owing to its inability to refine enough locally.
Source:BBC
