Nigeria's petrol price story is a story of subsidy, politics, and pain. For decades, the government subsidised petrol to keep pump prices artificially low — at great cost to public finances. When President Bola Tinubu removed the subsidy in May 2023, petrol prices more than tripled almost overnight. This article traces that journey from ₦185 per litre to where we are today.
Current petrol price: ₦1,245 per litre (Dangote refinery price, updated 7 April 2026). Check NaijaHub live fuel prices for the latest.
Nigeria has been a major oil producer since the 1970s, and successive governments found it politically advantageous to make petrol cheap for citizens. The subsidy was seen as a social contract — the people own the oil, so they should benefit from cheap fuel. In practice, the subsidy benefited wealthier Nigerians who own more vehicles and consume more fuel disproportionately more than the poor.
By 2022, Nigeria was spending over ₦4 trillion annually on fuel subsidies — more than the education and health budgets combined. The money went largely to NNPC to cover the difference between the international price of refined petrol (which Nigeria imports, paradoxically, despite being a major crude oil producer) and the regulated pump price.
This is one of the great contradictions of the Nigerian economy. Nigeria produces crude oil but lacks adequate refining capacity. The four government-owned refineries — Port Harcourt, Warri, Kaduna (two plants) — have operated at a fraction of their capacity for decades due to neglect, mismanagement, and lack of maintenance investment. As a result, Nigeria exports crude oil and reimports refined petrol, paying international market prices in dollars.
The Dangote Refinery in Lagos, which began operations in 2024, is designed to change this. With a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, it is the largest single-train refinery in the world. As it ramps up production, Nigeria's dependence on imported fuel should reduce, which could help moderate prices over time if the naira stabilises.
The immediate impact of subsidy removal was severe inflation. Transport costs — which affect the price of everything that moves on Nigerian roads — increased dramatically. A Lagos bus journey that cost ₦100–₦200 in early 2023 now costs ₦500–₦1,000 or more on many routes. Commercial motorcycle (okada) fares doubled or tripled in many cities.
Food prices surged as logistics costs rose. Markets reported 50–100% price increases on staples like rice, beans, tomatoes, and palm oil within months of subsidy removal. The cost of running generators — the backbone of power supply for most Nigerian homes and businesses — also increased sharply, compounding the economic pressure.
The Dangote Refinery began supplying petrol to the Nigerian market in late 2024. Its pricing, benchmarked in naira rather than dollars for domestic sales, created a new market dynamic. The refinery's current pump price of ₦1,245 per litre (as of April 2026) is lower than what many independent marketers were charging for imported petrol at the same time, providing some competitive pressure.
However, critics note that ₦1,245 is still nearly seven times higher than the pre-subsidy removal price of ₦185. The average Nigerian's purchasing power has not increased by anything close to that multiple, meaning fuel now consumes a much larger share of household income.
| Fuel Type | Price (Apr 2026) | Key Users |
|---|---|---|
| Petrol (PMS) | ₦1,245/litre | Cars, motorcycles, small generators |
| Diesel (AGO) | ₦1,150/litre | Trucks, buses, large generators |
| Kerosene (DPK) | ₦1,350/litre | Cooking, lamps in rural areas |
| Cooking Gas (LPG) | ₦1,600/kg | Home cooking, increasingly replacing kerosene |
Fuel prices in Nigeria are now largely market-determined. They will fluctuate based on international crude oil prices, the naira exchange rate, Dangote refinery output levels, and the contributions of NNPCL and independent marketers to the supply mix. A return to government-subsidised prices is politically possible but fiscally unlikely given Nigeria's debt obligations and revenue constraints.
The best-case scenario for consumers is that Dangote refinery reaches full capacity, naira exchange rate stabilises further, and competition between refiners and marketers drives prices down modestly. The worst-case is further naira depreciation pushing import costs higher, which would feed into pump prices regardless of domestic refining capacity.