The Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, has stated that there is no feasible solution to the lingering scarcity of kerosene, as the product is currently being sold for between N250 and N300 per litre depending on the location and outlet.
The crude end product was initially regulated at N50 per litre, but has been fully deregulated by the Federal Government.The deregulation was expected to give market competitiveness a boost, but for the fact that kerosene is also used as aviation fuel, which is also scarce, has further aggravated 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,
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.
Olawore stressed 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.
