The Federal Government has announced a 30-day discount on petrol sold at NNPC filling stations, less than three weeks after President Bola Tinubu ruled out a return to fuel subsidy.
Taiwo Oyedele, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, announced the measure in Abuja on Thursday. He said public transport operators nationwide would get priority and insisted the discount was a cut in NNPC’s margin, with petrol sold at cost for the period.
He did not say how much cheaper a litre would be or when the discount begins. NNPC stations currently sell at ₦1,355 per litre in Lagos and Rivers and ₦1,370 in Abuja, against a national average of about ₦1,400.
The government is also negotiating a ceiling of ₦1,350 per litre on the landing cost of petrol, to be reviewed every month. Refiners and importers would absorb any cost above that level and recover it when crude prices or the exchange rate improve. The ceiling applies before the product reaches filling stations, so it is not a pump price.
Oyedele said the aim was to stop sharp price swings. He added that the government had already waived more than ₦3.3 trillion in taxes and duties on petrol in the year to 30 September, and that more cash transfers, cheap loans for small businesses and a faster rollout of gas-powered vehicles would follow.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, rejected the announcement within hours. In a statement issued by his campaign spokesman, Phrank Shaibu, he called it a “panic-driven publicity stunt” and accused the government of timing the relief around the 2027 election. He said Nigerians could not be expected to forget years of high prices after one month of cheaper fuel, and argued that the move vindicated his own plan.
Atiku has campaigned on fuel prices since August, when he pledged to restore the subsidy, and has proposed a production subsidy for locally refined petrol. Tinubu dismissed the idea on 19 September, saying the answer lay in CNG and electric public transport. The Presidency estimated that Atiku’s plan could cost up to ₦21 trillion a year.
Tinubu remains the only presidential candidate of a major party still defending subsidy removal in its current form. The same three gaps apply: the discount amount, the start date and a reaction from labour or the marketers.
