…As 6 ships arrive at ports
By Adewale Sanyaolu and Oladele Oguntimehin with agency reports
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) on Tuesday warned of a prolonged fuel scarcity given the unpleasant experiences of its members in the current effort to clear the long queus across the country.
Chairman of Western Zone of IPMAN, Mr. Ahmed Debo, said the inability of IPMAN members to source products at the depots could prolong the fuel scarcity.
The fears expressed by Debo may not be unconnected with the long queues being experienced across Lagos since IPMAN members control over 65 per cent of the retail outlets across the country. He stated that marketers are facing serious challenges with no petrol to load in most of the depots.
“There are no product to load to the hinterland because most marketers depend on Lagos could not get product. It’s very difficult getting petrol in Ilorin, Kogi, Osun, Ekiti, Ibadan and cities across the country.
“We hope that government would expedite action on petrol importation to salvage the situation as most marketers had been thrown out of business. Unfortunately, we could not load petrol in major depots in Lagos. Only NIPCO and Folawiyo have products and that is strictly for NNPC retails outlets,” he said.
Debo, however, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently intervene in the problems surrounding fuel scarcity and importation to avoid hindering socio-economic growth of the nation.
“We are still having disruption in the distribution chain because there is shortage in supply. If we have sufficient supply, there won’t be scarcity of fuel.
“The pace of loading at most depots is slow because they are rationing products. In fact, most of the depots are not loading. Even the products they promised to pump to the depots are not available for distribution now,” he lamented.
Meanwhile, fuel queues worsened yesterday as most motorists besieged the few filling stations dispensing fuel. Many of the independent marketers sold at N150 and N180 respectively.
On Ikorodu Road, some of the filling stations, including NIPCO, Total, Conoil and Forte oil were dispensing with long queues of vehicles. In Ikorodu, only few stations including, Bravo, Fagbems, Dhram, Accion and Flomssy were selling at N150 and N230 per litre.
In a related development, six ships laden with over 186,000 tonnes of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, have arrived Lagos ports waiting to discharge. The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) stated this in its publication, Shipping Position, a copy of which was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos. The document indicated that another ship had arrived the ports waiting to discharge aviation fuel. NPA noted that 22 other ships containing petroleum products, food items and other goods were being expected at the ports from April 19 to April 30. The publication stated that four of the expected ships would arrive with petrol, while two others would arrive with diesel.
It explained that other expected ships contain general cargoes, bulk sugar, bulk salt, bulk wheat, containers, soda ash and ethanol.
NAN reports that 15 other ships are at the ports discharging bulk wheat, general cargoes, steel products, petrol, bulk gas, sugar and containers.
MAN, RMRDC disagree over use of local raw materials
From Magnus Eze, Abuja
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and Raw Materials Research Development Council (RMRDC), yesterday disagreed over use of locally sourced raw materials by Nigerian industrialists.
Chairman, Basic Metal Group of MAN, Chief Yinka Kutile, who led other nine sectorial chairmen to visit Science and Technology Minister, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, in his office accused the RMRDC of not living up to its responsibility of developing local raw materials.
MAN charged the agency not to only develop raw materials and keep on the shelves but should commercialise such innovations for manufacturers to bring them to reality.
But the Director General of RMRDC, Dr. Hussaini Ibrahim, countered him, saying instead that his agency had developed several raw materials, which were not used by MAN.
The DG said that the manufacturers had preferred importing raw materials until the recent economic downturn, coupled with scarce foreign exchange pushed them to begin to look in wards.
“A lot of raw materials have been developed but the manufacturers are not taking them serious. It’s only now that the economy is biting hard that they are beginning to look our way. We have been working, and have even developed some of the raw materials with the manufacturers,” he said.
However, the Minister said that the Ministry was committed to adding value to natural resources, pointing out that this was in the best interest of the nation as more jobs would be created and new technologies developed.
He thereafter set up a committee consisting of RMRDC, MAN, Customs and other relevant bodies to draw up a list of required raw materials that could be sourced in the country. The committee has six weeks to submit its report.