The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that there is no comprehensive data on the quantum of refined fuel consumed daily by Nigerians despite various figures being bandied about by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
According to the bureau, despite being a net importer of refined petroleum products, including petrol, no Nigerian government agency has the authentic data on the daily petrol consumption in the country.
The Statistician General of the Federation, Yemi Kale, who spoke to an online medium in Abuja recently, through his Technical Assistant, Esiri Ojo, stated that all data currently in circulation in the media and some government agencies regarding the national gasoline consumption in the country were either outdated or guesstimates, stressing that the estimated data cannot be relied upon for planning or policy decisions.
“At the moment, we in (NBS) do not have any reliable data on fuel consumption yet. We are working on a survey that would provide the information for the sector. Every other figure you hear being bended around by various agencies, and even the media, are just guesstimates,” Ojo said.
The NBS is Nigeria’s central repository of all data and statistics on all activities in all sectors of the country’s economy.
This was even as the NNPC spokesman, Ndu Ughamadu, said “the NNPC has no confirmed data or statistics on fuel consumption in the country. The corporation relies on figures provided by PPPRA (Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency).
In 2012, when fuel subsidy was still part of the country’s fuel pricing template, consumption figures grew geometrically from below 30 million litres per day to almost 60 million litres. Fuel marketers used the figure to make subsidy claims from government for supply of petroleum products.
On February 7, 2017, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, told a House of Representatives committee that daily consumption of petrol was 28 million litres.
The Minister said the figure dropped from about 50-55 million litres a day that the PPPRA was using for fuel subsidy payment.
But NBS’ latest petroleum products consumption statistics is November 2016. In the publication, the agency said about 12.66 billion litres of petrol was consumed in the country between January and September of the year.
The number of days between January 1, 2016 and September 30, 2016 were 273, or eight months and 29 days. The bureau said the figure translated to about 51.87 million litres per day. But the figure is higher than the petrol consumption data published by NNPC in its annual statistics bulletin on its website.