Dangote states expectations as diesel price crashes to N1,000
Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote has said that he hoped that reduced diesel price would cut back the inflation facing the country.
Dangote, who is the chairman of the Dangote Group, had made the comment last Wednesday, when his business concern, the Dangote refinery sold diesel to marketers at the rate of N1,200.
On Tuesday, the refinery further reduced the price to N1, 000. Prior to the commencement of production at the refinery, diesel was being sold for as high as N1, 600.
Prior to the price change, Dangote who is Africa’s richest man had said: “I believe that we are on the right track. I believe Nigerians have been patient and I also believe that a lot of goodies will now come through. There’s quite a lot of improvement because if you look at it, one of the major issues that we’ve had was the naira devaluation that has gone very aggressively up to about N1,900.
“But right now, we’re back to almost N1,250, N1,300, which is a good reprieve. Quite a lot of commodities went up. When you go to the market, for example, something that we produce locally like flour, people will charge you more. Why? Because they’re paying very high diesel prices.
“Now, in our refinery, we started selling diesel at about N1,200 instead of N1,650 and I’m sure as we go along, things will continue to improve quite a lot.
“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 two-thirds, you are now paying N1,200 for diesel.
“This can help to bring inflation down immediately. And I’m sure when the inflation figures are out for the next month, you’ll see that there’s quite a lot of improvement in the inflation rate.”
