Fuel scarcity hits the nation!!!

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.”
Punch