FG to pay marketers N156bn on Thursday, April 30

In a bid to resolve the current fuel scarcity plaguing Nigeria, the Federal Government has said that it would pay the sum of N156bn to oil marketers on Thursday, April 30, 2015, as part of the debt owed them.

This was disclosed by the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Wednesday, April 29, during an interview with journalists.

The Major Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) had threatened to stop importing fuel if the N256.2bn debt owed them was not paid.

“On the issue of oil marketers, we have really been working with them and we have been dialoguing with them all along. We’ve paid N350bn in December, we paid them N31bn in foreign exchange differentials and by tomorrow (Thursday) we will be paying them N100bn for which we had earlier given them IOUs for as well as their interest rate differentials of N56bn,” Okonjo-Iweala said.

“So, I am about to go and sign, to get that paid and I think that Nigerians can see that the government is making maximum effort to accommodate the oil marketers. They are also Nigerians, and they need to also cooperate with us,” she added.

Meanwhile commuters and car owners in Lagos and Abuja are again being subjected to long queues and exorbitant black market prices due to the unavailability of the product.