Senate to engage CBN on forex for fuel importers
IRKED by the lingering fuel scarcity across the
country, the Senate has unveiled plans to engage
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on the
possibility of opening a special window for
petroleum marketers to access foreign exchange
which had remained a major challenge to
marketers in their quest to import petroleum
products.
Chairman Senate Committee on
Petroleum (Downstream) Uche Ekwunife,
who disclosed this after an assessment
tour of Nipco Plc terminal in Apapa,
Lagos, said the committee is worried that
marketers were not importing owing to
the hiccups in the procurement of
foreign exchange.
“As soon as we get back to Abuja, we
shall engage the top hierarchy of CBN to
get a first hand report from them on how
to address the paucity of forex to
marketers as well as their plans on how
to facilitate forex to them “ she said.
Ekwunife said Nigerians are expecting
respite after the passage of the
supplementary appropriation bill of over
N10.6 billion fuel subsidy claims for
marketers, but were amazed that the
product is still not available in the right
quantity to guarantee continuous
availability at fuel stations.
According to her, investigations by the
committee showed that payment of the
subsidy claims is no assurance of petrol
availability as marketers are facing a
herculean task getting forex to import
even as most of them had opened several
letters of credit awaiting warranty by the
CBN.
She asserted that the Senate would meet
CBN governor to explain how forex will
be made available as a matter of priority
to marketers in view of the primacy role
of petrol to motorists and other
industrial users.
The senator commended Nipco for
exemplary efforts by bringing in cargoes
of petrol even with all the challenges of
subsidy and other ancillary issues facing
the sector.
She urged other marketers to emulate
the company.
The senate committee members who
were taken round the MT CHAMPION
vessel which brought the second
imported cargo expressed delight in
Nipco’s efforts and assured that all the
issues affecting the sector would be
placed on the front burner to ensure that
Nigerians did not suffer to buy fuel.
Managing Director of Nipco,
Venkataraman Venkatapathy said the
visit by senators is historic for the
company as the second import vessel of
the company –MT CHAMPION which
berthed with about 37 million litres of
petrol started discharging on the day of
the inspection.
He said the second import even in the
face of the challenges facing marketers is
in pursuance of the pledge of the
company to support government in
improving supplies of the product to
filling stations.
According to him, the depot had not only
insisted on selling at the government
official rate of N77.66K depot price but
had also warded- off middlemen in and
around the depot to avoid any
racketeering by those who may want to
cash in on the low price to rip off
motorists.
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