Kerosene was
initially regulated at N50 per litre, but has been fully deregulated by the
Federal Government.
Although
deregulation should have boosted the competitiveness of the product, but for
the fact that it is also used as aviation fuel, which is also scarce, has further
compounded the situation.
The Executive
Secretary of MOMAN, Mr. Femi Olawore, who disclosed this to Vanguard, explained
that since the deregulation of kerosene market, Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation, NNPC, drastically reduced its import, adding that marketers were
expected to import any shortfall, that the scarcity of foreign exchange is not
helping matters. He said, “Even with the policy of floating rate for Dollar by
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), there is no sufficient forex in the market.
You hardly can get Dollar at official rate of N285, meaning that marketers have
to source for forex from the black market rate of over N378, even with this,
forex is not readily available.
‘’The totality of it is that marketers are not
importing kerosene, as there is no forex. So, the small quantity of kerosene
available from refineries is sold at exorbitant price. I want to make it clear
that ‘’Major oil marketers under MOMAN have protested to the Petroleum Products
and Marketing Company (PPMC)’s management because the allocation of small
quantity of kerosene available is skewed in favour of other marketers.
In most
cases, we are completely denied kerosene supply.” Responding to question on the
economic benefits of the increase in petrol pump price from N87 per litre to
N145, to marketers he said; “Our margins have increased from N4.60k to N6 per
litre, with just N1.40k difference, which is only a marginal increase with very
little effect.”
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