The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), says residents of Abia, Kebbi and Kwara states, paid the highest amount for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly referred to as petrol, in December 2020.
The NBS said this in its “Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol) Price Watch for December 2020’’ released on its website, on Saturday.
It said that Abia residents paid N176.19 for the product, while Kwara residents paid N172.43 and Kebbi residents paid N169.92, while states with the lowest average price of petrol were Kaduna at N155, Katsina N160.25 and Bauchi N162.57.
According to the NBS, the average price paid by consumers for petrol increased by 14 per cent year-on-year and decreased month-on-month by -0.94 per cent to N165.70 in December from N167.27 in November.
Similarly, the average price paid by consumers for Automotive Gas Oil, otherwise known as diesel, increased by 0.28 per cent month-on-month and decreased by -2.37 per cent year-on-year to N224.37 in December, from to N223.74 in November.
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States with the highest average price of diesel were Taraba whose residents paid N266, Adamawa N262.50 and Zamfara N257.50, the report showed while citing states with the lowest average price of diesel as Kwara N195, Gombe N197.50 and Osun N201.09.
Fieldwork for the report was done by more than 700 NBS staff in all states of the federation, supported by supervisors, who were monitored by internal and external observers.
Fuel prices were collected from all the 774 local governments across the country from over 10,000 respondents and their locations.
The prices obtained reflected actual prices households bought fuel, together with the prices reportedly sold by the fuel suppliers.
The average of all the prices was then reported for each state, and the average for the country was collated from the averages for the states.