Nigeria’s most widely consumed transport fuel, Premium Motor Spirit, also known as Petrol, maintained a strong upward trajectory, as the average retail price paid by consumers rose to N1,596.25 per litre in May from N1,027.76 in the corresponding period last year, representing an annual increase of 55.31 per cent.
However, every month, the increase was comparatively moderate at 4.13 per cent from the N1,532.93 recorded in April, according to the latest Price Watch reports released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Household kerosene, which remains an important cooking fuel for many families despite the growing adoption of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), recorded the slowest annual increase among the three fuels.
The average retail price stood at N2,971.94 per litre in May, up 36.62 per cent from N2,175.29 recorded a year earlier. Although still too high for many families, unlike diesel and petrol, kerosene prices showed signs of easing monthly, with the average retail price per litre declining marginally by 0.17 per cent from N2,976.94 in April.
But the average retail price per gallon dropped by a much steeper 10.8 per cent to N11,949.39 from N13,396.23 recorded in the previous month. Nevertheless, on a year-on-year basis, the average price per gallon was still 40.88 per cent higher than the N8,482.22 recorded in May 2025.
READ ALSO: Japan Ready To Act As Yen Hits 40-Year Low While diesel experienced the steepest annual and monthly increases, petrol prices continued to rise at a slower pace, whereas kerosene was the only fuel to record a month-on-month decline. However, Nigerians continued to contend with elevated energy costs in May as the prices of the country’s three major fuels remained substantially higher than they were a year earlier, with diesel recording the sharpest annual increase of 86.4 per cent.
Although the three fuels exhibited varying monthly movements, the year-on-year figures suggested that households, transport operators, manufacturers, and businesses are still paying significantly more for energy than they did in the corresponding period of 2025, underlining the persistence of fuel inflation across the economy.
According to the NBS data, the average retail price of Automotive Gas Oil (diesel) increased from N1,758.26 per litre in May 2025 to N3,277.47 in May 2026, representing an annual increase of 86.4 per cent, the highest among the three petroleum products tracked by the bureau.
Diesel also posted the largest month-on-month increase, rising by 32.44 per cent from N2,474.69 recorded in April. The sharp rise in diesel prices remained significant because the product is widely used by industries, commercial transport operators, manufacturers, and businesses that rely on self-generated electricity, making it a key input cost across several sectors of the economy.
All three products remained considerably more expensive than they were a year ago, underscoring the sustained pressure on household and business expenditure.