The amount spent on the importation of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) in the first half of this year jumped to N1.47tn, which is more than 73 per cent of what was incurred in the whole of last year.
The N1.47tn is about 86 per cent of what the country spent on petrol imports in the whole of 2019, data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics show. Petrol imports gobbled up N782.46bn in the second quarter of this year, up from the N687.74bn spent on the importation of the product in Q1, according to the NBS data.
The country spent N1.09tn on petrol imports in the first half of 2020, up from N766.06bn in H1 2019. The data also showed that petrol topped the list of products imported into the country in Q2, accounting for 11.26 per cent of the total amount spent on imported products, up from 10.04 per cent in the previous quarter.
The country spent N2.01tn on petrol imports in 2020, compared to N1.71tn in the previous year. The PUNCH had reported last week that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation incurred N756.99bn petrol subsidy cost from January to July this year, citing data from the corporation.
