Fuel available and affordable in two weeks, agreed by all stakeholders
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Fuel will be available at an affordable price in the next two weeks, the Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has promised, seeing citizens whose lives have become more miserable in their search for petrol and naira notes.
IPMAN National Operations Controller Mike Osatuyi gave the assurance on Arise Television on Wednesday following a meeting held on 31 January with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and all other stakeholders.
The meeting was successful and all stakeholders will work together to end the chaos and ensure consumers can afford the pump price, he said.
No one in the value chain is clean in terms of all the challenges causing the fuel crisis, as there are bad eggs across all strata of the system, he stressed, but they are willing to tackle the issues and make fuel available at reasonable prices.
More depots will be made available to import and dispense greater volumes of fuel products, he said, and also spoke on cross-border smuggling fingered by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
Osatuyi urged the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) to stop its members from driving their fuel trucks across the borders into neighbouring countries.
He said if fuel is sold to marketers at N180 per litre, and other costs are added, the pump price could be between N210 and N220 per litre, which is better than N500 per litre at which it is now sold in some parts of the country.
He urged NUPENG to agree on what marketers will pay for transportation costs as this will also determine how much will be added to depot price.
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Subsidy, deregulation
Osatuyi advised Abuja to encourage massive importation of fuel so the price can reduce before the removal of subsidy, which IPMAN supports, per Nairametrics reporting.
But he stressed the N7 trillion that will be saved per year from the removal of subsidy should be ploughed into infrastructure upgrade and the welfare of citizens.
In his view, when subsidy is removed and refineries are working at full capacity, there will be no importation cost and Nigerians will buy fuel at better prices.
“We are ready to work with all stakeholders so that Nigerians can benefit. When the fuel subsidy is removed, the fuel cost will increase, but the money saved will be used for the benefit of Nigerians,” Osatuyi said.
Nigeria has one of the lowest fuel prices on the continent which stokes cross-border smuggling for higher margins.
In Ghana, fuel is sold for 13.23 Cedis (about N487) per litre and in Niger Republic, 540 West African CFA Franc (N413.10) per litre.