Some entrepreneurs in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, have lauded the decision of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) over the price reduction of diesel from N180 to N160 per litre.
Speaking to The Tide correspondent in Port Harcourt last Monday, an official of the state branch of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mr. Uche Ikechukwu, lauded NNPC for the price reduction in this period of  recession.
Uche said the gesture is a step in the right direction for the manufacturers across the country to revitalise their ailing industries due to high cost of diesel.
He explained that the reduction in litre price of the Automative gas Oil (AGO) popularly called diesel by about 42 percent by NNPC is for factories that had been moribund to pick up and reactivate their production chains, stressing that this development will fast-track productivity.
He added that members of MAN in the state are happy over the development as the gesture by the NNPC would further serve cost for the manufacturers and promote timely production of goods and services in the state to meet the yearning of the consumers.
Uche called on the management of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) to ensure reliable power supply in the state, as that remains the only sustainable means to an increased production by the various factories in the state.
He said that regular power supply will cushion the effect of huge overhead cost burden on the part of manufacturers.
Also speaking to The Tide, another entrepreneur and Chief Executive officer, NAU-Plastic manufacturing Company in Port Harcourt, Chief Ebitare Azare said that manufacturers in the state and the country at large would experience an increased production with the decision of this NNPC on diesel price.
Azare tasked NNPC to still reduce the price to what the manufacturers can afford to increased their production capacity in the country in this period of the nation’s economic recession, adding that an increased production capacity for the manufacturers in the state would create more jobs opportunities for the unemployed youths as well as reduce the cost of goods and services in the country.
He said manufacturers have been experiencing decline in production capacity until this slash in diesel price.
The Tide investigation revealed that the NNPC mega filling station at Lagos bus stop sells the product for N155 per litre of diesel while at another station, diesel sells for N170 per litre.
It would be recalled that in the first quarter of 2017 price of diesel was as high as N300 per litre making many factories to shut production and its staff attendant redundancy.

Philip Okparaji