The Chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has expressed optimism that the sale of diesel at a significantly lower price by his refinery, Dangote Refinery would help in taming inflation in the country.
Africa’s richest man stated this in a chat with journalists shortly after visiting President Bola Tinubu in Lagos on Wednesday.
He revealed that his refinery has been selling diesel at N1,200 per litre, compared to the previous market price of N1,650-N1,700.
The businessman expressed hope that a dramatic reduction in fuel costs would drive down inflation in the coming months.
He said: “There’s quite a lot of improvement because if you look at it here, one of the major issues that we’ve had was the narrow devaluation that has gone very aggressively up to about N1,900. But right now, we’re back to almost N1,250 and N1,300, which is a good improvement.
“And you can see quite a lot of things have gone down. Even people now when you go to the market, for example, something that we produced locally like flour or whatever, people will charge you more.
“Why? Because they are paying very high diesel prices. And what we did, for example, in our refinery, we started selling even diesel at about N1,200 for N1,650. And I’m sure, you know, as we go along things will continue to improve quite a lot.
“Well, even now, it’s a lot of impact. 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 one-third to now be paying diesel at N1,200.
“And maybe eventually going forward, even though the crude prices are going up, even with that, I believe people will not get it much higher than what it is today.
“At N1,200, it might be even a little bit lower. But that can help quite a lot. Because if you are transporting locally produced goods like rice and other stuff, you are paying N1,650. Now you are paying two-thirds of that amount at N1,200. It’s a lot. It’s a lot of difference. People don’t know.
“That can help to bring inflation down immediately. And I’m sure when the inflation figures are out for the next month, you see that there’s quite a lot of improvement in the inflation rate.
“So, one step at a time. And I’m sure the government is working around the clock to make sure that things get much better.”
By: Babajide Okeowo
