The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has identified distribution challenges and scarcity of dollars as major causes of fuel price hike and scarcity.
IPMAN said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has a sufficient supply of petroleum products.
The President of the Association, Chinedu Okoronkwo, stated this while featuring on Channels Television’s interview programme, Politics Today on Tuesday.
He explained that the reason for the scarcity of petroleum products had to do with distribution challenges relating to “dollarisation”.
However, Okoronkwo noted that petroleum marketers are expected to get the products from tank farm owners at N148.19 per litre, though according to him, they now receive the products at N185-N210.
According to him, “their excuse will be that they hired vessels to take it from the mother vessel, pay all these charges, and some of these things are dollarised, so you have no choice. I think we can come (together) as a country to see how we (solve) some of these dollarisation things, use naira and pay some of these things,” Okoronkwo said.
“Those who have the muscle and everything to buy will buy. No, this product is there. It’s because of what I’ve just said. NNPC has enough stock but (it is) because of this distribution thing; that is where we need to do something.
“IPMAN has about five zones. You can (deposit) some of these products in various zones so that their accessibility will still be at a cost that is not even that big. We are ready to chip in something to cushion some of these things so that we can still remain within the margin. I think that is the way to go.”
