Business

Group To Buhari: Direct Marketers To Revert To Normal Petrol Price Or Face Nationwide Protest

Published

3 years ago

March 27, 2022

A group, Citizens For Righteousness and Social Justice, Imo State chapter, on Sunday threatened to lead Nigerians in a nationwide protest if President Muhammadu Buhari led government refuses to use its relevant agencies to get the petroleum marketers to revert petroleum products to the old and approved pump prices in 14 days.

The Chairman, Bishop Kenneth Obi, who stated this in a release made available to newsmen in Owerri, Imo State capital, said, unfortunately, the increase in the products has consequently affected adversely the prices of goods and services in the nation.

“The disheartening aspect of it is not that bad leadership has negatively affected the country’s economy but that nobody is speaking out either for the fear of being killed or intimidated by those who are behind our woes in the society.

“It is no longer news that factors including high exchange rate have caused inflation in Nigeria, the sudden increase in the prices of petroleum products has worsened the whole situation; stemming from the fact that almost all sectors of the economy depend on the use of petroleum products to produce goods or render meaningful services to the society.

“For instance, fuel has risen to N240 per litre against the government approved pump price of #1I65. Diesel now costs more than #550 per litre, same as kerosene and Liquefied Petroleum Gas which are three times higher than what they used to be a few years ago.

“A bag of rice which was once sold below N800 is now N38,000. The transportation sector is also affected as people now pay through their nose, to embark on journeys.

“Sadly enough, the hardest hit by this ugly development are the people considered as ordinary Nigerians; whose wages or salaries have not experienced the necessary upgrade.

“Of course, financially well to do individuals and highly placed government officials can afford petroleum products at whatever prices they are pegged which is why they rarely come out to speak for the masses.

“Recently the Federal Government imported bad fuel into the country which created an avenue for marketers to hoard the product; thereby creating an artificial scarcity which consequently skyrocketed the price even above N800. The situation which occurred in February last month has lingered with the price of fuel seemed not to be going down below N220 per litre.

” And it is crystal clear that the Federal Government has regulatory agencies like Petroleum Products Price Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) bestowed with the authority to ensure that petroleum marketers sell the products at the approved price.

“The question now is ‘does the failure of the government to get the marketers to sell at their approved price of N165 per litre entails that they have used the importation of bad fuel as a way to further increase the price of the product?

“If the answer is in the affirmative, then the Federal Government should open up to us (citizens) and provide palliative measures to cushion the effect of the accompanying hardship.

“But if the answer is ‘No’ the government should urgently prevail on the marketers to come down to the normal and approved price since the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has made persistent claims that they have enough product to serve Nigerians.”

Related Topics:Buhari Group petroleum price

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Business

Okonjo-Iweala Reveals How Nigeria Can Dominate AfCFTA

Published

4 hours ago

September 23, 2025

Editor

The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, says Nigeria has what it takes to lead Africa’s new era of trade if it tackles high logistics costs, develops efficient payment systems, and invests in value addition.

Okonjo-Iweala, who was speaking on the sidelines of the WTO Public Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, said Nigeria and other African economies must speed up the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, and build stronger infrastructure to unlock billions of dollars in opportunities in manufacturing, services, and digital trade.

“The AfCFTA is a great step, but Africa trades only about 15–20 percent within itself — far below the European Union, EU’s 60 percent. We (Nigeria) need to speed up implementation so Africans trade more with each other.

“Take Lesotho: it exports around $200 million worth of textiles (jeans, etc.) to the U.S. — about 10 percent of its GDP — while Africa imports $7 billion of similar goods. Why not absorb Lesotho’s products within Africa? To unlock intra-African trade, we (Nigeria) need efficient payment systems (Afreximbank and others are working on this), better infrastructure and lower trade costs. It shouldn’t take longer to ship goods from Cape Town to Lagos than from China to Lagos.

“With critical minerals, energy, and new supply chains, plus opportunities in services and digital trade, there’s huge potential — if we invest in connectivity and implementation,” she said.

The former Nigeria’s Minister of Finance also cautioned that negative narratives about global commerce risk overshadowing recent successes achieved through multilateral cooperation.

Business

French Media Giant Canal+ Takes Over S.Africa’s Multichoice

Published

1 day ago

September 22, 2025

Editor

French media giant Canal+ said Monday it had taken effective control of South African television and streaming company MultiChoice, creating a group present in nearly 70 countries in Africa, Europe and Asia.

The companies said in a joint statement that the combined group will have a workforce of 17,000 employees and serve more than 40 million subscribers.

The acquisition is “the largest transaction ever undertaken” by Canal+, the statement said.

Canal+, which is already the sector’s leader in French-speaking African countries, now controls what it described as the leader in the continent’s English- and Portuguese-speaking regions.

“This acquisition allows us to strengthen our position as a leader in Africa, one of the most dynamic pay-TV markets in the world,” Canal+ chief executive Maxime Saada said in the statement.

The buyout was given a final green light by South Africa’s competition authority in late July, more than a year after Canal+ launched its bid.

Canal+ offered 125 rand ($7.2) per share for MultiChoice when it launched its offer last year, valuing the South African firm at around $3.0 billion.

Canal+ is present in 25 African countries through 16 subsidiaries and has eight million subscribers.

MultiChoice operates in 50 countries across sub-Saharan Africa and has 14.5 million subscribers.

It includes Africa’s premier sports broadcaster, SuperSport, and the DStv satellite television service.

AFP

Business

BREAKING: Nigeria’s GDP Grows By 4.23% In Q2 2025 – NBS

Published

1 day ago

September 22, 2025

Editor

Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product grew by 4.23 per cent (year-on-year) in the second quarter of 2025, the National Bureau of Statistics revealed in its Q2 2025 GDP Report.

According to the report released on Monday on its website, the figure shows a significant improvement compared to 3.48 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2024 and the 3.13 per cent recorded in Q1 2025.

The figures signal a strengthening economy, driven by recent rebasing, rebound in oil production and a resilient non-oil sector.

The report said, “Following the rebasing of the Gross Domestic Product using 2019 as the base year, previous quarterly GDP estimates were benchmarked to the rebased annual estimates to align the old series with the new rebased estimates

“This procedure provided a new quarterly GDP series, which is compared to the 2025 second quarter estimates. Gross Domestic Product grew by 4.23% (year-on-year) in real terms in the second quarter of 2025.

“This growth rate is higher than the 3.48 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2024. During the quarter under review, agriculture grew by 2.82%, an improvement from the 2.60% recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2024.

According to NBS, “The growth of the industry sector stood at 7.45% from 3.72% recorded in the second quarter of 2024, while the Services sector recorded a growth of 3.94% from 3.83% in the same quarter of 2024.”

The report said in terms of share of the GDP, “the Industry sector contributed more to the aggregate GDP in the second quarter of 2025 at 17.31% compared to the corresponding quarter of 2024 at 16.79%.”

It added, “In the quarter under review, aggregate GDP at basic price stood at N100,730,501.10 million in nominal terms. This performance is higher when compared to the second quarter of 2024, which recorded an aggregate GDP of N84,484,878.46 million, indicating a year-on-year nominal growth of 19.23%.”

Details later…