The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says it is working in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to help oil marketers commence importation of petroleum products in the country.
Dr Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for Petroleum, stated this at a monitoring tour of filling stations in Abuja on Saturday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that that the NNPC is currently the sole importer and supplier of petrol in the country
Kachikwu said that the collaboration would focus on helping marketers to access forex to enable them import products into the country.
“We are working very collaboratively with the Central Bank now to try and look at long term solutions to the majors so that they can begin to go back and bring in their own products,” he said
The Minister apologised to Nigerians on the resurgence of massive queues at the various petrol stations.
“I apologise to Nigerians for all the pains, nobody wants to see people spend up to two hours on fuel queues.
“The president is very bothered about this, and if there is anything that bothers him, it is the sight of people waiting for fuel but we are doing everything we can, the NNPC is taking the whole nation on its shoulders.
“Whilst majors are really not bringing in products, we are working on long term solutions so they now begin to go back to importation lanes and be able to service their own outlets,” he said.
The minister, who said that NNPC servicing everybody brings a lot of wear and tear on its capability status, noted that it was currently the sole importer and supplier of petrol in the country.
He expressed hopes that the lingering scarcity and queues for petrol would ease off within two days.
Kachikwu added that the corporation had massively increased its truck out petrol to depots and filling stations in the country.
“God willing, we will see this through and in the next one or two days, we should be clear and we are looking at long term
“Impressive, we have enough coming in, obviously the three days of strike hit us very badly but we are supplying an average of over 300 trucks again into Abuja.
“It is going to take a bit of while for the queues to clear off and we are hoping that between tomorrow and the next one, two days, the queues will all disappear.
“We are continuing to pump in, a lot of our stations are open 24 hours a day,” he said.
The minister noted that as long-term strategy, there would be the need to systemically look at how to prepare the nation in circumstances to respond to emergencies.
He said that he would initiate a long term solution to curb the menace of products scarcity in the country.
“We are obviously not getting it as well as we should,” he added. (NAN)
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