CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele
The Central Bank of Nigeria and marketers of petroleum products have disagreed over claims of insufficient foreign exchange for product importation.
The CBN said the complaint by the marketers about their inability to get enough foreign currencies, especially the United States dollar, for product importation in recent times, was strange.
The bank said the marketers were on its priority list of forex users and could not be denied needed funds for petroleum products importation.
The position of the CBN was made known to our correspondent by its spokesperson, Mr. Ibrahim Muazu, in a telephone interview on Thursday.
However, the Executive Secretary, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association, Mr. Olufemi Adewole, insisted that importers of refined petroleum products were grappling with forex shortage, which was affecting the implementation of product purchase agreements.
Muazu said if the country was in a crisis situation in terms of forex availability, the pressure would have been felt at the interbank foreign exchange market.
He said, “The marketers are on our priority list. It is very strange to us that they are making this complaint. We believe they are making a case out of no case.
“If they are having problems accessing credit; that is different. But as for forex, we don’t see the reason why they should complain of scarcity.”
Last week, DAPPMA said the development had been brought to the notice of the CBN.
Marketers of petroleum products had said they were finding it very difficult to get dollars to finance import transactions; even with the naira equivalent readily available.
Some marketers, who recently had their credit lines reopened by their banks after a long wait, are also having challenges getting adequate dollar conversions, our correspondent learnt.
Adewole had said, “One serious problem that the marketers are having now is the scarcity of foreign exchange to conclude product supply transactions. Even with our cash in our bank accounts, we cannot get the required amount of dollar.
“We need the CBN governor to intervene as far as the supply of foreign exchange to the marketers is concerned.”
The marketers had told our correspondent that a single supply transaction required millions of dollars.
“But with the situation on the ground, we are limited to getting just $1m per week after so much pressure,” one marketer told our correspondent on the condition of anonymity.
Members of DAPPMA recently resumed importation of Premium Motor Spirit or petrol into the country, but before then, only the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, through its subsidiary, Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, was the sole importer of PMS into the country.
The resumption of importation happened after some members of DAPPMA had their credit lines reopened by the banks.
Adewole had said, “The PPMC is not the only importer of PMS as of today. Some of our members just discharged their cargos. Although we have not been paid, we are optimistic that very soon our members will be paid by the government.
“All the banks have yet to open credit lines to our members, but some of our members have obtained one or two additional credit lines to import products from their banks as we speak.”
Some of the marketers currently importing petrol, according to findings by our correspondent, are Techno Oil and Gas, Masters Petroleum, Rainoil, Bovas, North-West Petroleum in Calabar, Shorelink in Port Harcourt and Emadek.
Source : punch
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