Fuel scarcity may continue in December-Marketers

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 subsidyp 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.