
This is just as minister promised to work with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, in addressing the foreign exchange challenges confronting major petroleum importers.
Speaking during a tour of petrol stations in Abuja, Kachikwu apologised to Nigerians for the pains brought about by the scarcity, while he stated that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, deploys 300 truckloads of fuel to Abuja on a daily basis, while supply has also been increased across the country.
“We have enough coming in. Obviously the two days of strike hit us very badly but we are flooding in, getting an average of 300 trucks a day into Abuja; it’s going to take a bit of while for the queues to finish but we are hoping that between the next one-two days we should have the queues all disappear because we are continuing to pump in, while a lot of the stations are open 24 hours a day.
“I apologise to Nigerians for all the pains; nobody wants to see people spend two hours on the fuel queue. The president is very bothered about the sight of people waiting for fuel.
“He said talks had begun with the CBN to help major oil marketers in Nigeria access foreign exchange to import petrol into the country.
“We are doing everything we can; NNPC is taking the whole nation on its shoulders while majors are really not bringing in product; but we are working long term solutions to majors to now begin to go back to importation lane and be able to service their own outlets rather than us servicing our outlets, independents, majors and servicing everybody; it’s a lot of wear and tear on our capabilities as a status.
“Long term obviously we have got to systemically look at how do you prepare this nation in circumstances where there are emergencies to be able to respond; we are obviously not getting that as well as we should.
O n the collaboration with the CBN, Kachikwu said it was to pave way for the major oil marketers to import their petroleum products for sale.
According to him, the government has been preparing to strengthen the nation’s capacity to stand emergency situations, that result from fuel crisis.
“Obviously, we are going to systemically look at how do you prepare this nation to the circumstances where they have emergency we will be able to respond,” he said.
Kachikwu, who also doubles as the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said the forex situation situation has left corporation the lone importer of fuel since then.
“We are working in collaboration with the Central Bank now to try and look at long term solutions for the majors so that they themselves go to back and bring their products.”
With him were the former Managing Director, Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Mrs. Esther Nnamdi-Ogbue, and other management staff of the NNPC.