Africa Press-Nigeria:
“This action is being taken to cushion the economic impact of Covid-19 on our people,” the Reuters news agency quotes Petroleum Minister Timipre Sylva as saying.
Despite being one of Africa’s largest oil producers, Nigeria has to import most of the fuel used in the country.
Fuel prices are contentious in Nigeria, where riots can break out at rumours of increases. Prices had been kept artificially low at 145 naira ($0.48) per litre.
Africa’s biggest economy has been battered by the global effects of coronavirus. Roughly 90% of the Nigerian government’s foreign exchange earnings come from sales of oil, prices of which have taken a beating amid lower Chinese demand and a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.
President Muhammadu Buhari approved a gasoline pump price cut to 125 naira ($0.4085) a litre from 145 naira during a cabinet meeting last Wednesday.
Timipre Sylva, the Minister of State for Petroleum, later issued a statement saying Nigerians should benefit from falling fuel costs, which were “a direct effect of the crash in global crude oil prices”.
