Fuel scarcity is not our fault, Finance Minister says

monjola sotubo

March 4, 2015 10:12 AM

Okonjo-Iweala added that pipeline vandalism and logistics were to blame for the long queues being witnessed in petrol stations around the country.

The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has said that the current fuel scarcity plaguing the country is not the fault of the Federal Government.

The minister stated this on Tuesday, March 3, during a meeting with journalists in Abuja.

Okonjo-Iweala also denied reports that a delay in paying claims to marketers was responsible for the scarcity.

“Government is very concerned about the fuel queues which have appeared in Lagos, Abuja and other parts of the country,” the minister said.

“As Nigerians can attest, the Petroleum Ministry and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, have worked very hard to give out the message that there is no need for panic buying and that it is trying to reduce the queues to the barest minimum,” she added.

“We are working with them and in fact, the marketers are coming to meet with us tomorrow (today). We have also agreed to pay the interest rate and foreign exchange differentials,” she continued.

“I want to emphasize that contrary to some unfounded speculations, the queues are not caused by payment issues. As you know, we paid the marketers a total of N320.8 billion from the Excess Crude account in two installments in December last year,” the minister said.

“This underscores the fact that we are taking payment of marketers very seriously indeed. We’ve been in constant touch and talking with the marketers and a week ago we reached an agreement with them on their core concerns which we have addressed,” she added.

The fuel scarcity started during the weekend and petrol marketers have said that it’s likely to last till next week.

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