The Federal Government has agreed to grant oil marketers further concession to access Foreign Exchange (FOREX) at a rate below the official N305 per dollar to enable them resume importation of petrol.
This was part of resolutions reached at the meeting of an ad hoc committee set up by the Presidency to engage key downstream stakeholders on sustainable solutions to fuel supply in the country.
The meeting took place at the office of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, in Abuja yesterday.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had recently lamented that despite the concession by the government giving access to the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA) to obtain FOREX at an official rate of N305 per dollar for PMS import, their members have not been able to do so, leaving NNPC as the sole supplier of PMS to the Nigerian market.
The National Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Mr. Danladi Pasali, said the committee which is charged with the resumption of petrol import by marketers will look into how to make the US dollar available to marketers instead of paying them subsidy.
“That FX will help checkmate the cost of bringing in product,” Pasali said, adding, “With all these measures taken, we can assure the general public that there will be surplus petroleum product.”
He explained that the other sub-committees will look into product distribution and surveillance.
It was also gathered from the meeting that marketers agreed that the price of petrol should not be increased.
Oil marketers agreed to adopt cost-cutting strategies and for them to look inward and improve efficiency so that they can cut cost and resume imports.
The committee has as members, heads of some parastatals under the ministry, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), DAPPMA, IPMAN, and labour officials.
Meanwhile, Ndu Ugbamadu, Head, Group Manager, Public Affairs, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has also advised fuel marketers to seize the opportunity of special window, provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) to access dollars for importation.
He said marketers will resume importation soon, when they maximise the use of the window, by accessing enough forex for fuel importation.
He said when this happens, NNPC will relieve itself of the burdens of being the sole importer of fuel in the country, adding that the issue is affecting some activities of the corporation.
He said all the marketers, including NNPC, were regarded as participants in the market, arguing that it would be wrong for marketers under the aegis of Major Marketers Association of Nigerian (MOMAN), the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria(IPMAN) and the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) to conclude that the Federal Government is giving NNPC preference in the area of allocation of forex in the country.
Ngbamadu said: ‘’ The fuel situation in the past few weeks is worrisome, as Nigerians were made to queque in the filling stations, trek for hours under the sun, sleep in the heat, run businesses without being able to access light through their generators, among others. But importation of fuel has been left to only the NNPC by marketers under the guise that they are denied forex allocation by CBN.’’
He said the more the importation of fuel, the higher the supply of the product and its usage for improved economic activities in the country.
Still on fuel, Ngbamadu said NNPC boasts of enough supplies in the country, despite the challenges in the micro economy.
He said NNPC would not have increased fuel supply from the normal 30 million litres per day to 50million litres and even 80million litres during the heat of fuel scarcity, if it does not have enough fuel reserve.
He said NNPC had a meeting with tanker’ drivers and other members in the supply fuel chain days ago in order to ensure seamless distribution of the product in the country.
He said the NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Dr Maikanti Baru, has directed all the depots that were owned by NNPC, to store fuel for onward distribution to its outlets and other marketers across the country, in order to ease fuel supplies.