Oil Marketers Beg FG To Clear N800bn Debt Spent On Fuel Import

The marketer made this known in a communiqué after their meeting in Lagos, signed by their legal adviser, Mr. Patrick Etim.

The meeting which centered on how to pay the debt, had Osinbajo in attendance with Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Ibe Kachikwu and Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele.

The communique reads in part: “This debt has greatly impeded our ability to operate, our operating funds have been eroded, curtailed our ability to access funds from the financial institutions and some of our members have resorted to staff retrenchment due to inactivity, the marketers said.

“Besides, our worst fear is that AMCON at some point may take over our firms as a result of this debt. It is for these reasons and other challenges facing the downstream petroleum subsector that we seek government’s intervention to approve immediate payment of the debt.

“The foreign exchange differentials, which arose as a result of the initial devaluation of the naira by the last administration from the initial N165/S$1 and the interest payable due to delayed reimbursement by the government, both of which the Federal Government had approved for payment to marketers, have not been fully settled by the appropriate Federal Government agencies.

“The recent further devaluation of the naira from N195 to N285 and later to over N305 to S$1, while the Federal Government agencies based their reimbursement calculation on N197 to S$1, has left members of our association with additional debt burden in excess of N300billion.

“The downstream subsector is now saddled with a debt burden of over N400billion, which keeps rising because the banks are still charging interests on it until the total debt is fully liquidated.

Meanwhile After the meeting, Osinbajo directed the Minister of Finance to resolve the problem.