Speaking in a chat with newsmen, weekend, the Executive Secretary of the PPPRA, Mr. Farouk Ahmed, noted that due to difficulty in accessing foreign exchange by the marketers resulted in their inability meet the quota.
“We gave 78 per cent of the import allocation to NNPC because we are sure that it can source for foreign exchange through crude oil sales to finance its importation.
“If we go back to recent historic trends, especially in the last six months, you will discover that most marketers have had difficulty in raising Letters of Credit due to lack of forex,” Ahmed explained.
Dismissing insinuation that the import allocation was skewed to ease out private sector marketers from the business and to engender NNPC monopoly, Mr. Ahmed explained that even the foreign exchange requirement for the 22 per cent import allocation to other oil marketers was being covered by both the NNPC and the Central Bank, to ensure that they perform.
“The whole idea is to give whatever possible support to the marketers in order to enable optimum service delivery, while ensuring stability in the system,’’ he added.
On disparity in pump price of fuel across the country, the Executive Secretary said with the ongoing massive importation and distribution by NNPC, the issue will soon disappear as supply is intensified.
“This problem is being tackled in two ways. Firstly, with the support of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, PPPRA and DPR are working hard to ensure compliance.
“Secondly, once product is abundantly available it becomes a straight issue of supply and demand and competition for market share. And that is the whole idea,’’ he said.
While noting that the worst days are over for fuel supply and distribution challenge, the PPPRA boss assured that the days and weeks ahead will witness improved sanity in the product distribution environment.
“What happened was that some marketers were hoarding in anticipation of a price increase, but that did not happen, so everybody is now releasing their stock into the market and coupled with the massive importation by NNPC.
“We are indeed hopeful that the worst days are over, although we still have to be a bit patient,” he said.
