The
Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) revealed
that the fuel shortage sweeping the country is due to the government’s
refusal to pay its members for petrol imports since September 2013,
forcing them to cease importation.
Speaking
to journalists in Abuja yesterday at an IPMAN meeting, the
association’s national president Aminu Abdulkadir said its members now
depended on imports by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC).
"There
is nobody that will do a job that is not being paid that will
continue,” he said. “The only way out is for the Ministry of Finance to
commence payment of part of last year Q3, Q4 and this year Q1.”
Abdulkadir
revealed the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) only
allow the NNPC to import 50 per cent of fuel used in Nigeria, while
marketers, of which IPMAN members account for 87 per cent, import the
remaining 50 per cent, putting pressure on the NNPC.
"We
have done our best. Let them pay Q4 and Q1, then marketers will have
the solvency to import and augment what NNPC is bringing."
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