The current petrol scarcity facing the nation due to
delay in subsidy claim payment and Petroleum
products, marketers said the fuel scarcity could
continue up until December.
They said with the approval of the N413bn subsidy
arrears by the Federal Government still awaiting
clearance at the National Assembly, there were
other issues that involves some paper work and
getting the forex equivalent of the N413bn
payment.
The process, they said, could take a number of
weeks to complete.
A marketer from Apapa, Lagos said:
“For the fact we have (marketers) stopped
importation of product for some time now,
there is obviously a huge gap in the supply.
This gap must be closed for us to have
normalcy in the supply chain. Truly, I don’t
see this normalcy returning by December
given the current happenings,” the marketer
said.
The Chairman, Nigeria Union of Petroleum and
Natural Gas Workers, Lagos Zone, Alhaji Tokunbo
Korodo, said the supply situation was unlikely to
see much improvement as marketers’ confidence
in the government had seriously eroded.
According to him:
“Although approval had been made, the
actual payment of the subsidy arrears is a
different ball game. With the way things are
at the moment, it will take between three and
four weeks for us to have a normalised
market.
“As we speak, some marketers are still
cautious when it comes to importing product
under the subsidy scheme. Government
needs to build the confidence of marketers
so that they can fully go back into the
business. Otherwise, the scarcity situation
might soon become unbearable.”
One of the marketers, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said:
“In recent times, we have been having issues
with getting enough forex for our deals.
Nothing has changed in the regard. Now, we
have a huge sum of N413bn entering the
system. Loans will be paid in forex as well
as payments for products from international
suppliers.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria is not giving us
a clear directive in this regard. We will need
forex, but we do not know where to get it in
this quantum. Right now, the truth is that
marketers don’t know how to source forex
with the recent CBN provision.”
