Nigeria’s petroleum marketers have accused Dangote Refinery of operating a secret petrol price regime.
The president of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Association of Nigeria, PETROAN, Billy Gillis-Harris, disclosed this on Thursday during an interview with Channels Television.
His comment comes amid the latest hike in the pump price of petrol by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to N1,030 per litre in Abuja.
Reacting to the hike and way forward for petrol marketers and Nigerians, Gillis-Harry asked Dangote Refinery to stop operating in secrecy regarding the pricing of petrol.
He urged the management of the refinery to be open, get inputs from stakeholders and allow marketers to directly lift its petrol.
“Regarding Dangote price, as I speak to you this morning, I don’t know what Dangote price is all about and that is speaking a lot because, at this point in the Dangote campaign in Nigeria, retail outlets like us should know the price input of Dangote but they have kept that shrouded in secrecy up until now,” he said.
He noted that while NNPCL gave a price template, it did not reveal the input of Dangote Refinery in the pricing.
He said: “NNPC gave us a price template that also did not tell us what the exact price input from Dangote.
“We will encourage Dangote to open up the space of communication, talk to stakeholders, and get valuable inputs from everyone because it’s a business that involves Nigerians, retail outlet owners like us, and different consumers, so there should be some level of business transparency, even if it’s a private business.
“We are so proud that we have such a facility operating in Nigeria but we need to start to see the works. I am unable to confirm to you if Dangote increased their prices or reduced them because we are not aware.”
According to him, Dangote Refinery is open about its diesel price but not that of petrol.
“I can tell you about their price for diesel because the diesel prices were made known to us, most of us patronise them for diesel but in the case of the PMS, I don’t have any information,” he said.
However, Emmanuel Kelvin, an economist, explained on Channels Television on Thursday that Dangote Refinery has not revealed its petrol price because the product has not been fully deregulated.