Daily Watch – Fuel prices set to go lower, Army colonel kidnapped

President Buhari has approved the release of ₦10 billion to the National Population Commission for the continuation of the Enumeration Area Demarcation in the remaining 546 Local Government Areas of the country. He also approved an additional ₦4.5 billion to be included in the 2021 budget for the completion of the exercise as part of the preparations for the next census. The acting NPC chairman, Eyitayo Oyetunji, further told journalists about the funds that 228 LGAs have been demarcated across the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory in the previous nine phases. The 10th phase of the exercise, including training and fieldwork, will run from 5-19 October.

Half of the electricity produced by electricity generation companies (GenCos) in August did not get to consumers. According to a document released by the Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC), the umbrella body of GenCos, on Monday, 49.9% of electricity generated in the month, the latest for which data is available, was stranded. The GenCos said the average generation for August was 3,872 megawatts (MW), while the volume of stranded generation (power unable to get to the national grid) was 3,857MW. However, the available generation capacity for the month was put at 7,729MW. There has been a historical gap between the generation capacity of GenCos and the distribution capacity of DisCos, leading to a lot of unutilised electricity. An analysis by The Cable website in September found that Nigeria’s verifiable electricity generation had only increased by 776MW since the 2013 privatisation of the power sector.

The pump price of petrol may reduce marginally this month, going by the fall in global crude oil prices, oil marketers. According to them, since the cost of petrol has been largely determined by the price of crude oil, the recent marginal plunge in crude oil cost could lead to a drop in petrol price in Nigeria. Brent Crude, the global benchmark against which Nigeria’s crude is priced, dropped in price by $1.66 or 4.06 percent as at 1320 hours Central Standard Time. The commodity (Brent) traded at $39.27 per barrel at the same time, while the cost of crude in the OPEC Basket was put at $39.94 per barrel. The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency announced the deregulation of the downstream oil sector in March. Although it provided petrol price bands in some months after March 2020, the PPPRA eventually stopped issuing price bands, as it explained that the downstream sector had been fully deregulated.

A Nigerian Army colonel has been abducted by bandits after running into an ambush along Abuja-Kaduna Highway. The Peoples Gazette reported that SB Onifade was on a road trip at about 0300 hours on 27 September when he was abducted. He has not been found and no arrests have been made in connection with the violence, which occurred near Olam Farms. The officer was not in military uniform when he was kidnapped, military sources said. The Gazette claimed that the Nigerian Army Headquarters, in reaction, issued a warning to officers to be wary of road trips.