Fuel scarcity ends Saturday - Okonjo-Iweala

FG releases N100bn sovereign debt notes to oil marketers

Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala, yesterday assured Nigerians that the fuel scarcity currently ravaging many parts of the country would end latest by Saturday. Okonjo-Iweala told State House correspondents at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan, that the president had ordered all agencies to speedily restore normalcy in the supply system.
She said the scarcity, which has led to long queues of vehicles at filling stations nationwide, was extensively discussed at the meeting. She said after proper briefings on the causes and solutions of the fuel shortage, Jonathan gave specific instructions on how to deal with the matter because he wanted prompt and quick action to immediately improve the situation. She reiterated her stance that the scarcity was caused by some factors which included the depreciation of the naira.

Okonjo-Iweala said: “We discussed that (fuel scarcity) at the FEC because Mr. President wanted prompt and quick action to improve the situation as fast as possible. “So, after the briefing and discussion on both the financial and physical side, what emanated is that this situation, we hope will soon be resolved because both on the financial side, action has been taken and it is being implemented through the Ministry of Finance and the Governor of the CBN.

“Let it be known that in December we paid N320.2 billion to marketers to settle their claims and as of now, what we have approved by Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency is about N185 billion on Sunday, which we are issuing Sovereign Debt Notes (SDNs) to which is tantamount to having government guarantee that they will be paid. “But the long and short of the matter is that the financial issue has been taken care of.”

In furtherance of the efforts to end the fuel scarcity, the Federal government yesterday issued SDNs of N100 billion to the petroleum marketers. At a meeting chaired in Abuja by Okonjo-Iweala with the representatives of the oil marketers, the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele and PPRA Executive Secretary, Mr. Farouk Ahmed, in attendance , the minister assured the marketers that they would be paid with exchange rate calculated by the PPRA. She said N30 billion had already been released to them based on the exchange differentials.

The minister assured them that exchange differentials would be tackled as supply chain goes on. Giving update on product supplies, Executive Secretary of the Major oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Lawore, said the scarcity would end in a few days following sustenance in products supplies nationwide. “We supplied 132 trucks to Lagos from major marketers’ installations. This did not include what went from NNPC depot, DAPMAN and supplies from IPMAN depots .

Yesterday, we did 135 to Lagos and we increased volume coming to Abuja to 139 which is a higher figure than 87 which we did before just to tell you that we have the volumes available and we are moving it,” he added. But it was learnt that oil marketer were not happy that they got SDNs instead of cash they were expecting. “We were only shown letter of presidential approval and this will still take a process before it could lead to payment.

It will be given to the Debt Management Office (DMO) then to the Accountant General Office before it will get to the Central Bank. “As it stands now the payment cannot be made until next week Tuesday and what this means is that majors cannot have access to funds to import fuel until that time,” a marketer told New Telegraph after his anonymity was guaranteed.