Nigerian Government has agreed to grant oil marketers further
concession to access Foreign Exchange (FOREX) at a rate below the
official N305 per dollar to enable them resume importation of petrol,
Daily Trust has learnt.
This was part of resolutions reached
at the meeting of an ad hoc committee set up by the Presidency to engage
key downstream stakeholders on sustainable solutions to fuel supply in
the country.
The meeting took place at the office of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, in Abuja yesterday.
Sources
at the meeting told Daily Trust that the new rate is being worked out
by a special committee on FOREX in collaboration with the Central Bank
of Nigeria (CBN) and Ministry of Finance.
The Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had recently lamented that despite
the concession by the government giving access to the Depot and
Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA) to obtain FOREX at an
official rate of N305 per dollar for PMS import, their members have not
been able to do so, leaving NNPC as the sole supplier of PMS to the
Nigerian market.
The National Secretary of the Independent
Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Mr. Danladi Pasali,
said the committee which is charged with the resumption of petrol import
by marketers will look into how to make the US dollar available to
marketers instead of paying them subsidy.
“That FX will help
checkmate the cost of bringing in product,” Pasali said, adding, “With
all these measures taken, we can assure the general public that there
will be surplus petroleum product.”
He explained that the other sub-committees will look into product distribution and surveillance.
It was also gathered from the meeting that marketers agreed that the price of petrol should not be increased.
Oil
marketers agreed to adopt cost-cutting strategies and for them to look
inward and improve efficiency so that they can cut cost and resume
imports.
The committee has as members, heads of some
parastatals under the ministry, the Group Managing Director of the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), DAPPMA, IPMAN, and
labour officials.