The National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Billy Gillis-Harry, and the spokesman for the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Ukadike Chinedu have lamented the current fuel situation in the country, News About Nigeria reports.
They expressed their disappointment in the situation while speaking on the Monday edition of Channels Television’s The Morning Brief breakfast programme.
They lamented the low patronage at their retail outlets nationwide, stating that marketers are now cutting workers and shifts because of high pricing and low returns on investment.
Gillis-Harry noted that the products that were gotten for certain amounts a few months ago are now gotten at outrageous amounts, stating that this makes it difficult to sell.
He said, “Marketers, retail outlet owners, all of us in the industry are finding it difficult to cope with the current situation. We used to buy 45,000 litres of fuel a couple of months ago for less than N8.5 million but today we have to cough out about N49 million to buy the product.
“Financial institutions are not coming to our rescue. The cost of money is so high, it is so difficult to even sell; what we get to our retail outlets is not quickly bought because Nigerians also have the challenge with their buying power.”
Also speaking, Ukadike Chinedu noted that filling stations nationwide have become ghost places as middle-class Nigerians have abandoned their vehicles and embraced public transportation.
“Most of the money we use in investing is bank money. It’s being borrowed, and the interest rate is also high. There is no return on investment because the more we sell, the more we make profits.
“Now the volume of trade in the filling stations is very low because of the characteristics of the buyers who have now dropped some of their luxury vehicles with V8 and are now using alternative transportation.
“If you check some of the filling stations these days, you will find out that there is skeletal or ghost buying; two or three cars will just come in and buy. We are no longer talking about scarcity; we are now talking about price differentials,” he stated.
They, therefore, urged President Bola Tinubu to provide ₦100bn as a seed fund for oil marketers to stay afloat, just like the aviation and agricultural sectors.
