Customs: Nigeria’s petrol still profitable to smuggle despite subsidy removal

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) says cross-border petrol smuggling persists in Nigeria despite the subsidy removal due to the difference in prices in Nigeria and neighbouring countries.

Speaking during a press briefing in Abuja on Tuesday, Adewale Adeniyi, comptroller-general (CG) of customs, said smuggling of petrol is still a profitable business for smugglers.

“It is not an intelligence that is far-fetched. It is the price differentials,” he said.

“Despite the removal of the fuel subsidy, we have discovered that it is still profitable for smugglers to take fuel illegally from Nigeria. You know that the prices are dynamic.”

According to the CG, there has been a reduction in the pump price of petrol in Nigeria recently, ranging from N850 per litre to N900 per litre.

However, Adeniyi said the product is sold at higher prices in neighbouring countries.

“In Cameroon, it is close to N2,000 per litre. In Niger Republic, it is about N1,600 per litre to N1,700 per litre. In Benin, it is the same thing,” he said.

“So, this arbitrage provides the incentive for those smugglers to smuggle products and this is why we launched ‘Operation Whirlwind’.”

Adeniyi said the scheme was meant to be a short-term intervention, but “we have discovered that it had to be kept despite the high resource that is needed to sustain the programme”.

Similarly, on April 15, Farouk Ahmed, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), said the estimated pump price of petrol in Nigeria is less than that of neighbouring countries in West Africa.