Fuel Scarcity: FG To Pay Marketers N156bn Today

9 years ago

Fuel Scarcity: FG To Pay Marketers N156bn Today

As Nigerians continue to groan under the impact of fuel scarcity, the federal government yesterday disclosed that it would pay oil marketers N156 billion today to enable them continue importation of the product.

Business and commercial activities in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have almost been brought to a halt due to acute scarcity of fuel.

There are unimaginable long fuel queues in which motorists wait for several hours, across the handful of filling stations which still sell the product in the FCT.

However, hopes that the situation would soon abate was raised yesterday when the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, disclosed that government would pay oil marketers another N156 billion today. The minister who was speaking on the sidelines of the 20th conference of director-generals of customs of the World Customs Organisation West and Central Africa region (WCO-WCA) explained that the money is to cover for interest rate differentials and the ‘I Owe You’ (IOU) previously issued to the marketers. According to the minister, the money is made up of N100 billion payment for the IOUs and N56 billion for exchange rate differentials.

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She said, “By tomorrow (today) we will be paying them N100 billion for which we gave them IOUs as well as the interest rate differentials of N56 billion. So I am about to go and sign that and I think that Nigerians will agree that the government is making maximum effort to accommodate the oil marketers; they are Nigerians and they also need to cooperate with us.

“So as I leave here we are going sign for them to get another N156 billion, N100 billion for the IOUs we gave them which are due tomorrow (today) and N56 billion in interest rate differentials.”

Okonjo-Iweala, who, however, pointed out that the times were difficult in view of constrained revenue resulting from oil price slump, said government was still doing its best to priortise the oil marketers in order to protect Nigerians from exposure to the hardship of fuel scarcity.

“In this very difficult environment where revenues are constrained, we are doing our maximum; we have priortised them because we don’t want Nigerians to suffer and they too have to cooperate with Nigerians and also be good and patriotic citizens,” she stated.

Also speaking, the minister of information, Mrs Patricia Akwashiki, said the federal government will commence payment some of its liabilities, including subsidy to oil marketers in order to clear queues from fuel stations across the country.