The Dangote Petroleum Refinery is selling Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), also known as diesel, at a reduced price of N1000 per litre iinstead of N1,650. This represents a drop from N1200/litre price quoted by the refinery two weeks ago.
Chairman of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, had earlier announced that the refinery will start selling diesel at a reduced rate as part of measures to tame the country’s elevated inflation rate.
He stated then:
“Now, in our refinery, we started selling diesel at about N1,200 instead of N1,650 and I’m sure as we go along, things will continue to improve quite a lot.
“If you look at it now, when you are buying N1,650 or N1,700 for a litre of diesel, and that one has been cut off by almost two-thirds, you are now paying N1,200 for diesel.
“This can help to bring inflation down immediately. And I’m sure when the inflation figures are out for the next month, you’ll see that there’s quite a lot of improvement in the inflation rate,”
The billionaire business man attributed the significant increase in the cost of the product to the depreciation of the naira in the foreign exchange market but noted that as the naira’s resurgence continues, the price of diesel will gradually come down.
Insight
The price of diesel has increased by over 50.20% year-on-year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Diesel Price Watch for February 2024. In the month under review, the average price of diesel across the country stood at N1,257.06 per litre with some states selling at over N1500/litre.
The Dangote refinery only began supplying diesel and aviation fuel to marketers about two weeks ago at a price of N1225 per litre after countless postponement since its inauguration in May 2023.
