Mele Kyari, the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), says Nigerians should be paying at least N256 per litre for petrol.

Mr Kyari disclosed this at a stakeholders meeting organised by the NNPC to stop fuel smuggling.

Commenting on the current PMS and subsidy payment, Mr Kyari noted that the petrol pump price should be N256 per litre given the current exchange rate.

“If we are to sell at the market today at the current exchange rate, we will be selling the product at about N256 to a litre. What we sell today is N162, so the difference is at a cost to the nation,’’ he said.

According to him, the country cannot sustain subsidy payment with the high volume of daily consumption, pointing out that the country coughs up N150 billion every month on subsidy.

The NNPC boss further explained, “As long as we don’t regulate volume until we are able to exit this current level, which I know so much work is going on, then we have to manage the volume that we are exposed to between this price of N162 and N256. The difference comes back to as much as N140 billion to N150 billion cost to the country monthly.

“As long as the volume goes up, that money continues to increase, and we have two sets of stress to face: the stress of supply and stress of foreign exchange for the NNPC. We may not see foreign exchange cheque taking place for importation.’’