The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has closed its petrol application portal to marketers, suspending fresh orders due to a significant backlog that remains unresolved. This has further exacerbated the ongoing fuel crisis in Nigeria.
Marketers are unable to access the portal through which they apply to NNPC for the purchase of petrol. Typically, marketers bid for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) through the NNPC portal, making payments through the same channel and then waiting for months to receive the product.
Independent marketers said that NNPC owes them billions of naira, as they are yet to supply them fuel for three months after paying money.
Recently, officials of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, reported that NNPC had stopped loading the trucks of IPMAN members, especially after the recent hike in petrol prices.
IPMAN members operate over 70 per cent of filling stations nationwide. They expressed concern that the state-owned energy company did not attend to them despite having paid for petrol about two months ago. This, they said, made them resort to patronising private depots who sell to them at higher rates.
When contacted by our correspondent, NNPC confirmed the shutdown of its petrol purchasing portal and gave its reasons.
According to its spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, the company shut the portal due to a significant backlog. He explained that the shutdown became necessary to stop the NNPC from holding marketers’ capital for too long.
“We have a significant backlog to address. The closure is intended to prevent us from holding marketers’ funds for an extended period,” Soneye explained.
He assured the marketers that the portal would be reopened after the backlog had been reduced.
“It will be reopened once the backlog has been sufficiently reduced. We are working to address it as soon as possible,” he told our correspondent.
Soneye did not reveal the level of the backlog.
Hammed Fashola, the National Vice President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), made a similar allegation during an interview in January, which Soneye denied at the time.
Fashola had urged the Federal Government to review the current distribution pattern and prioritize IPMAN members.
Fashola said, “We buy products from NNPC cash and carry. We don’t enjoy any credit facility with the NNPC. There are times when we pay for products, and you don’t get the products for two or three months. You have your money in the coffers of the NNPC, which means they are trading with our money.
“If I am not exaggerating, we should be talking of over N300bn, when you consider the number of marketers all over Nigeria. Our money is always there, trapped, while we keep struggling to get fuel. The three days will turn into months if they don’t have products or they are out of stock, you have to wait, and your money will be there.”
Although fuel queues have been subsiding, the price of petrol remains unaffordable for many Nigerians.
At NNPC filling stations and those owned by major marketers, a liter of petrol sells for prices ranging from N855 to N900.
However, independent marketers often charge as high as N1,000 per liter or more, depending on the location. These higher prices have led to a significant increase in transportation costs across the nation.
This article was written by Tamaraebiju Jide, a student at Elizade University
