The oil markets have addressed a letter to the President, dated October 21, in which they are requesting a grant of N100 billion to assist in preventing the closure of impacted 10,000 marketers’ businesses in the coming weeks.
Dr. Joseph Obele, the National Public Relations Officer for PETROAN, stated that the price of a truckload of PMS has surged from N7 million to N47 million over the past 16 months.
He said, “Three days ago, there was a meeting at the national headquarters of PETROAN. At the meeting, there was, an indication that about 10,000 of our members would quit business in the next 45 days because their trading capital had been severely affected.
“That was why we wrote a letter to Mr President, dated October 21, requesting a grant of N100bn to save the affected marketers’ businesses from shutting down in the next few weeks.”
Abubakar Maigandi, the President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, acknowledged that there has been a decline in fuel consumption. He noted that the union’s members have also been impacted by this situation.
“There is a drop in consumption and the price of a truckload is higher now. So, we have reduced the quantity of fuel we buy. For instance, someone who bought 10 trucks before can only buy eight now. So, we haven’t been getting the right quantity that we are supposed to get. We sell only the little quantities we get,” he said.
The leadership of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers has highlighted that the failure of oil marketers to purchase fuel has led to job losses for truck drivers and employees at petrol stations across the nation.
Mr. Afolabi Olawale, the Secretary-General of NUPENG, stated, “The economy is not smiling at all. Many petrol station owners cannot even buy a single truckload, and this has affected our members. Those of them that are truck drivers hardly get loads to carry anymore. Many petrol stations have closed down and our members who are petrol station workers have lost their jobs.
“This is an unfolding situation. It’s evolving, so I may not be able to give you the actual number of people affected now because we have those in the informal and formal sectors. We have people in the upstream, downstream, and midstream. But I don’t have the statistics right here with me to give you.
“Though everybody is affected, those in the downstream are the most affected. It affects those in the downstream sector directly because they are truck drivers, station workers, and the representatives of the marketers at different depots.”
