Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum, has stated that full deregulation of petrol prices is imminent.

Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum, has announced that Nigerians should expect complete deregulation of petrol prices very soon.

Sylva announced during the opening of the 56th Annual International Conference and Exhibition of the Nigeria Mining and Geoscience Society (NMGS) at the University of Ibadan that petrol prices will be completely deregulated by the end of this year.

The Minister went on to say that the Buhari administration needs to provide Nigerians with a credible and cheaper petrol substitute until complete deregulation.

 

He said;

 

“We have been talking about deregulation for decades. Unfortunately, we have not succeeded. We have succeeded in deregulating some products.

“Kerosene has been fully deregulated; diesel has been fully deregulated. But deregulation of PMS (petrol) has continued to elude us. We expect that this year, we will be able to achieve that.

“But, before we do that, we want to apply the principle of tolling the roads. Before you toll a road, you are expected to give an alternative.

“So, what we want to do for Nigerians is to give a credible and cheaper fuel as an alternative before we fully deregulate and we believe we will be able to achieve this later this year.

“And this, of course, is going to be a responsible way of also maintaining our environment.”