The Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, has advised Nigerians to be ready to pay for high petrol pump price.
He said this at official launch of Nigerian Upstream Cost Optimisation Program in Abuja on Tuesday in view of the crude oil price climbs above $60 per barrel.
Sylva explained that there is no provision for subsidy in the 2021 budget and that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) could not continue to bear the cost of under-recovery.
According to the minister, while government revenue has improved due the rise in crude oil price, it cannot be wasted on subsidy payment.
He said the NNPC needed to also examine how to achieve the optimization of product cost.
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“As desirable as this is, this has serious consequences as well on product prices. So, we want to take the pleasure and we should as a country be ready to take the pain. Today the NNPC is taking a big hit from this. We all know that there is no provision in the budget for subsidy,” Sylva said.
“So, somewhere down the line, I believe that the NNPC cannot continue to take this blow. There is no way because there is no provision for it. As a country, let us take the benefits of the higher crude oil prices and I hope we will also be ready to take a little pain on the side of higher product prices”, he stated.
