“The federal government is no longer subsidizing Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as gasoline,” Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), told State House Correspondents on Monday in Abuja.
He stated that, contrary to social media speculation, the federal government was no longer providing subsidies to any individual or group for transporting petroleum products into the nation.
“No subsidy whatsoever. We are recovering our full cost from the products that we import. We sell to the market.
“We understand why marketers are unable to import. We hope that they begin to do so very quickly and these are some of the interventions the government is making. There is no subsidy,’’ he said.
Kyari went on to say that the recent pockets of low lineups seen in some states were caused by terrible roads, which forced carriers to shift the merchandise to alternate routes.
“We have seen in very few states pockets of very low queues. This is not unconnected with the road situation and that’s why we’re seeing some blockades on our roads.
“Moving the products from the southern depots into the northern part of the country takes them much longer time now than it used to be.
“They have to re-route their trucks around many locations for them to be able to reach their destinations and that created delays and some supply gaps. But, that has been filled and we do not see any problems like that again.
“Secondly, because of the full deregulation that we have in this sector, marketers are now competing amongst themselves,” he said.
The NNPCL group managing director further stated that some of the waits were caused by customers’ choice of filling stations with low rates.
“You must have noticed that some fuel stations will reduce their prices by N2 or N3. So customers will naturally run to the places where you have that reduction in prices and probably create panic.
“This is because those who don’t know why they are doing it will think that there’s something happening or that there’s an ominous sign of scarcity,’’ he said.
He claimed that there are over 1.4 billion liters of petrol accessible for local consumption, both on the seas and on land, and that there is no reason to be concerned. He also emphasized that market forces were now at work, and marketers were fighting for the product as well as how to satisfy their clients.
“There are few issues we’re engaging them to resolve, alongside other agencies of government, particularly critical issues around access to foreign exchange. And as you all know, the government is doing so much to ensure the supply of forex into the market.
“We know that this FX market will stabilize the current I&E window is around 770. And we know that those inputs from the government will crystalize and they will come to an equilibrium position in the FX market and this is the dream of this country,’’ he said.
Kyari guaranteed marketers a stable currency and a circumstance in which the product’s prices would be in line with the prices of other commodities.
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