What is causing Nigeria's petrol scarcity?
Nigeria's petrol scarcity

Petrol scarcity isn't a new experience for Nigerians.

At least once a year, usually in December, Nigerians suffer through long queues at petrol stations or buy petrol at higher rates from black-market sellers in certain parts of the country. It's a given that most Nigerians will spend more time or money buying petrol in December.
 

Key takeaways:

  1. Nigeria has had three major petrol scarcity events this year; the latest was in October.

  2. Although these events might seem unrelated, they are all caused by Nigeria's petrol subsidy because, with prices fixed by the government, changes in supply affect quantity.

  3. The petrol subsidy is beginning to unravel and is impacting the entire downstream petrol value chain.

However, with three major petrol scarcity events, 2022 has been worse than usual. The key word here is "major" because there have always been isolated petrol scarcity events in parts of the country. For instance, in

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Noelle Okwedy

Noelle Okwedy

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