NNPC loaded out about 1,180 trucks approximately, 41 million litres, nationwide, of which Lagos had about 462 trucks, Abuja 129, and the balance to the rest of the country. source said: “Since it became obvious that NNPC cannot meet the quota allocated to it to import petroleum products, there was a stakeholders’ meeting on February 23 to discuss the issue. All present agreed that PPPRA should free some more allocations in favour of the major and independent marketers who have the capacity to import.”
However, the Executive Director, Commercials, Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, PPMC, the marketing arm of the NNPC, Mr. Justin Ezeala, denied any knowledge of such agreements. Ezeala told Vanguard on the telephone that contrary to reports that NNPC is unable to meet its import allocation quota, it had, in fact, been importing over 98 percent of the products available in the country.
He said: “I am not aware of any moves for such a reduction in import quota. Remember that in the past we used to do like 48 percent, it was increased to 78 percent because NNPC is the provider of last resort. “As I speak to you, we loaded out about 1,180 trucks, approximately 41 million litres nationwide, of which Lagos had about 462 trucks, Abuja 129, and the balance to the rest of the country. This 41 million litres is more than the daily national demand. “As you know, because of foreign exchange issues, very few marketers are able to bring in products.
Even though we have tried, with the help of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to support them with access to forex, it hasn’t made much difference. “If anything, NNPC/PPMC is bringing in over 98 percent, if not 100 per cent of the products currently available in the country because the issues responsible for their inability to import have escalated because banks are not willing to open letters of credit, LCs, for marketers to import.”
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