Business
Fuel scarcity: FG begs oil marketers with N156b
In efforts to ease the fuel scarcity being experienced in some parts of the country, the Federal Government said that oil marketers would on Thursday receive the sum of N156bn as payment for fuel subsidy.
The Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said despite the revenue challenges facing the government, the issue of fuel subsidy payments to oil marketers had always been prioritised by the Federal Government.
She spoke during an interview with journalists shortly after declaring open the 20th conference of Directors General of Customs of the World Customs Organisation.
The minister while sympathising with Nigerians whose lives are being disrupted by fuel queues, said the government is working hard to end the scarcity within the shortest time possible.
She said, “On the issue of oil marketers, we have really been working with them and we have been dialoguing with them all along. We’ve paid N350bn in December, we paid them N31bn in foreign exchange differentials and by tomorrow (Thursday) we will be paying them N100bn for which we had earlier given them IOUs for as well as their interest rate differentials of N56bn.
“So, I am about to go and sign, to get that paid and I think that Nigerians can see that the government is making maximum effort to accommodate the oil marketers. They are also Nigerians, and they need to also cooperate with us.”
The Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, The Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association and MOMAN had put the aggregate subsidy arrears owed the marketers by the Federal Government at N356.2bn.
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Don Lucassi
April 30, 2015 at 9:14 am
The scam has finally been open to all…Oil marketers holding the whole country to ransom because govt didnt include subsidy in the 2015 budget. Now they are going to be kept quiet with 156 billion. Please this has to end one day. If there is one thing Im certain will end as GMB is coming in, its dese oil marketers holding the country by the balls.
Jedimaster
April 30, 2015 at 9:29 am
Nigeria, the more you look, the less you see.
Apachee zooma
April 30, 2015 at 10:08 am
Oil marketers are business men. Shouldn’t they get paid for legal transactions? If there are black sheep among them, they should be investigated and dealt with by law. You get? The industry I must admit is in deep shit. Pity, Buhari has to carry the cans using legal means.
Gracious Store
April 30, 2015 at 3:47 pm
The only way for Nigeria to solve the problem of subsidies and oil marketers once and for all, is for Nigeria to privatize refineries in the country so that all the refineries within the country will be able to refine enough fuel for domestic use and even export the fuel to neighboring countries. Rather than exporting the crude and have marketers to import fuel for domestic use, Nigeria should aim at refining enough crude for domestic use. Since Nigerians are very notrorius for running down government owned companies and infrastructures, privitiation of the refineries is the only way to have each refinery in the country produce fuel to its optimal capacity for domestic use, in that way Nigeria will have nothing to go with oil marketers who at the least disagreement with the government hold Nigerians hostage by refusing to distribute fuel to fuel stations