Indications have emerged that the ongoing fuel scarcity in major parts of the country may linger for a longtime, as the Federal Government and fuel marketers disagreed over the exact sum of money owed by the former.
While the fuel marketers alleged that the Federal Government was owing them N250 billion, the Federal Government said the money owed the marketers was just N185 billion.
The, Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, speaking Tuesday on the fuel scarcity, said the government paid the marketers a total of N320.8 billion from the Excess Crude account in two installments in December last year.
“We’ve reached an agreement with the marketers’ union on the N185 billion balance of their payment. As part of this agreement, the minister said the Federal Government will pay not only the costs the marketers incurred and their fees but also interest and foreign exchange differentials,” she said, adding that the Debt Management 0ffice (DMO) had issued SDNs to cover N100 billion out of the N185 billion agreed upon as balance for the next payments.
The minister stated further that the CBN had given approvals for the banks to issue letters of credit.
“The government is very concerned about the fuel queues which have appeared in Lagos, Abuja and other parts of the country. As Nigerians can attest, the Petroleum Ministry and NNPC have worked very hard to reduce them to the barest minimum. We sympathise with Nigerians whose lives are being disrupted by the queues and assure them that we are working hard to end them as quickly as possible.
“The situation is due to a mix of factors including disruption of pipelines and logistical issues and they are being attended to urgently.
“I want to emphasize that contrary to some unfounded speculations, the queues are not caused by payment issues.’’
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