Category: Local News

Nigerians and indeed business communities (particularly the downstream oil industry players) were caught off guard when President Bola Tinubu during his inauguration on May 29, 2023 declared that “fuel subsidy is gone!”. The President said there was no provision for subsidy in the national budget from June 2023 and, therefore, it stands removed.

From May 29 when the announcement was made, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) directed its outlets nationwide to sell Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) between N480 and N570 per litre, an almost 200 per cent increase from the initial price below N200, leading to a significant increase in transportation fares and prices of goods and services.

Again in July, petrol pump prices rose to about N617/N620 per litre at various outlets of the NNPCL in Abuja and many parts of the country. At the time, the NNPCL attributed the rise in prices to ‘market forces’. The NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, explained that with the deregulation of the oil sector, market realities will force the price of petrol up sometimes and at other times force it down.

Despite the immediate pains and uncertainties brought about by the president’s abrupt subsidy removal announcement, Nigerians in their patriotic spirits kept hope with the new government especially with repeated assurances from them that funds for the subsidy will be diverted to other pressing demands like public infrastructure, education, health care and jobs. The downstream oil industry players saddled with the onerous responsibilities of refining, marketing, distributing and selling the products to everyday users also keyed into the government’s directives since removal of the subsidy was also expected to allow for more private-sector operators in the petrol sector including in the importation of the product.

Recall that NNPCL has since 2016 been the sole importer of PMS in Nigeria. But on 15 June, the company announced it was no longer the sole supplier of petroleum products in the country.

The development came months after the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) said it was fast-tracking the process of issuing oil marketers licenses to import petroleum products in its bid to break the monopoly of the NNPCL in compliance with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.

Owing to this development, several indigenous oil companies applied for oil importation licenses and over 94 of them were licensed.

*Idle licenses as NNPCL continues market domination* 

Findings revealed that seven months after acquiring the licenses, only few of the oil marketers have been able to do business with it. According to them, challenges such as forex scarcity, fluctuation in prices of crude oil, poor distribution networks and others which were duly addressed in PIA still persist. However, they submitted that most pressing of these challenges is forex.

“People keep asking why most licensed oil marketers are no longer in business as if they don’t know the answer. How do I run a business that is obvious will be on loss? Where do I get forex to import this product? The NNPCL being a government funded company is the only one still doing business because it can access forex in whatever amount it so desire and that is the aim of collapsing the multi-forex windows to just Investors and Exporters (I&E) window as far as I am concerned. It’s majorly to run the Independent and Major oil marketers out of business,” an enraged marketer said.  

Over the past four months, the naira has depreciated by over 50 per cent at both the authorised and unauthorised market segments, after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced in June that it had collapsed all forex windows into the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window. The move, according to the apex bank, was part of the federal government’s efforts to improve liquidity and stability in the market and attract foreign investors into the Nigerian economy.

Consequently, the policy has put additional pressure on the local currency and manufacturers, with ripple effects on domestic prices. Oil marketers that had allocations to import and supply petroleum products are unable to do so due to forex scarcity. Some fuel marketers said they are hardly able to access dollars and open letters of credit for their imports.

Speaking at the National Executive Council meeting of the Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association of Nigeria (NOGASA) in October, National President of the Association, Benneth Korie, said many petroleum products depots are currently deserted due to a lack of products caused by foreign exchange rate volatility.

“Depot owners are so terribly affected by the increasing cost of crude oil and exchange rate, to the extent that many depots are practically deserted as their owners are unable to secure bank loans to fund their business due to high-interest rates.

“Banks are not willing to guarantee funds release to stakeholders as a result of the difficulty, instability and galloping rates of foreign exchange and high cost of the dollar. Many depots are presently dried up or out of stock, and this is no gainsaying as it is evidently verifiable.

“Worst hit are filling stations whose owners find it extremely difficult to secure funds to procure products for their retail outlets. Both the independent and major marketers are so terribly affected,” Korie said at the time.

Meanwhile, NNPCL recently confirmed it has returned to being the sole importer of petrol in the country.

The NNPCL boss who disclosed this during the Energy Labour Summit organised by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) in Abuja said licensed private oil companies are unable to obtain foreign exchange for importation.

“We are the only company importing premium motor spirit (PMS) into the country.

“None of them (oil companies) can do it today. For them, access to foreign exchange is difficult. We create foreign exchange (FX), therefore we have access to FX, while their access to FX is limited,” Kyari .

Again, during his appearance before the Senate Committee on Appropriation,  the  NNPC Ltd boss reaffirmed that his organisation remains the sole importer of refined products.  He however assured the Senate Committee that the forex issues with regards to wide disparities in margins would soon be  resolved. In his words, ” I am confident that by the end of the first quarter of next year, those margins will narrow down and you will see others coming into the importation market “.
His assurance notwithstanding,   industry experts are of the opinion that if not properly managed the forex crisis and other challenges facing the downstream industry players will cripple the economy, abate the whole purpose of the subsidy withdrawal and plunge the country into a deep socio-economic crisis. Said a petroleum industry authority,  ” For the avoidance of  doubt, this will result in a combination of adverse conditions that include lack of access to financing/credit, slump in investments,  household demand and consumption,  a falling GDP, high deficits, loss of income and unemployment among others.”
As things stand, the President has a major role to play ” since he has decided to go the way of his predecessors by appropriating the Petroleum Ministry to himself as Minister . He should act fast before it is too late,” another industry expert and analyst said.

The Late Lawrenco Antonio Cardoso Family, under the leadership of its Olori-Ebi, Head of Family, Chief Tunlese Cardoso, has thrown its weight behind the owners of Oil and Gas Facilities, Container Jetties and Residential Buildings in Kirikiri Town Area of Lagos, asserting that it has resolved to put an end to the ongoing closure of all the properties in the Area.

In what Property Sector players described as a fundamental family position that could bring the seemingly intractable crisis between these property owners and some grandchildren of the late Cardoso to a resolution, the Cardoso Family declared emphatically, through a recent Advertorial that the family indeed sold or leased the properties to the affected owners and are, therefore, not a party to denying them the use of and access to products of their sweat.

The family said: “We were invited by the Police at the Zone 2 Police Command to give our statements on all the transactions our family has done on our Estate in Kirikiri Town and we want to make it clear that our family have sold and leased out the said properties in Kirikiri Town to its present occupants and we have no intention to take back the properties from the people we have sold and leased them to.”

Whilst berating the activities of a few of its family members, whom it accused of conniving with some unscrupulous land grabbers to deny those who genuinely bought or leased properties from their family their rights to enjoy their homes and business premises, it warned those concerned to desist from the unwholesome act.

The Statement, which has the signatures of the Head of the Family and other elders of the various branches of the family accused some few members of the family of despicable conduct by asking those who the family had already sold the properties to pay the sum of N5 billion if they want to retain ownership of the properties.

The Family Head and elders said further: “On our part, we have resolved to put an end to this embarrassing situation by asking every person who genuinely bought and leased their property from our family in Kirikiri Town to go and unseal their homes and business facilities.”

Coming down hard on the black legs in the family and their collaborators, the Cardoso Family called on the Inspector General of Police and other Security Agencies to arrest the ugly situation timeously.

The Statement said further: ” We urge the Inspector General of Police and heads of security agencies within the country to be mindful of the antics of these unscrupulous members of our family and their notorious land grabbing agents, who have deprived innocent residents of Kirikiri Town their means of livelihood in the last three months.” The Cardoso Family, in its public statement, specifically urged the management of all the oil marketing companies with Depots and other facilities in Kirikiri Town to go and resume their operations immediately.

It will be recalled that on Tuesday August 8, 2023, some bailiffs and officials of the High Court of Lagos State stormed Kirikiri Town and sealed off a number of Depots, other oil and gas facilities and some residential areas.

The officers were said to be carrying out a court judgement delivered on Monday June 23 2014 by Honourable Justice Jumoke Pedro, in respect of a suit filed by some nine grandchildren of the late Cardoso contesting the ownership of the properties.

Legal pundits have expressed concerns over the judgement and its fall-out, given that Depot Owners and other property owners in Kirikiri Town were not in any legal disputes with any party, neither were they a party to any suit in respect of their titles on the properties, nor were they joined as co-defendants in the suit, in which a judgement was said to have been given to seal off their business and residential premises. High level sources disclosed that mindful of the embarrassing situation and the grave economic implications of the Kirikiri Town debacle, the Lagos State Government may have decided to intervene decisively to restore sanity and bring the ugly situation to an end, through an out of court settlement, even as an appeal has been filed contesting the judgements arising from the case.

Some stakeholders in the Nigerian downstream oil and gas sector have expressed concerns about the inclusion of additional costs that were not originally included in their pricing template. They have singled out Stevedoring as one of the costs that were added without prior agreement.

According to the stakeholders, while stevedoring (the act of loading or offloading cargo to and/or from a ship) is a common practice in other sectors of the oil and gas industry, such as upstream and midstream, it cannot be accommodated in the downstream sector’s costing template at the moment.

Said one of the top Executives of an oil marketing company: “For the downstream business, which is where we are at, yes, the upstream business is slightly different. They run their transactions dollar-based. So I guess they can pay money in dollars. We (downstream players) run our transactions in Naira. Everybody knows that Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) is not deregulated yet; that is the truth, the reality. “

“So given the restriction there, it even makes it difficult to accommodate any other cost that is not within that pricing structure. The pricing structure is clear. It talks about vessels. It talks about anything that has to do with your vessel’s activity. It is specific. If you log on to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) websites, you will see that there’s nowhere where stevedoring is mentioned,” added this stakeholder.

He noted further: “When they start to introduce those things into that cost structure, then we are unable to sell, or rather, it’s either you are selling at a loss because you are including costs that are not in regulated templates, or you can’t sell within the limitation of the regulated price.
I don’t know; sometimes I feel as if a lot of these things are done due to a lack of knowledge. So if you give Stevedoring to the upstream companies, their system is robust enough. It has a deregulated structure.
But we should always know that you can’t be saying you want us to reduce costs and, on the government side, keep increasing them. So yes, there’s an act guiding it.”

Given the prevailing uncertain situation, downstream sector stakeholders are calling on the Federal Government and regulatory agencies like Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to involve major stakeholders before making rules and signing such policies and initiatives into law.

“First, the government should engage the stakeholders; people shouldn’t sit where they sit and just make rules around things they know very little about. So it is not just about what the downstream sector wants. Let’s engage so that you better understand our business”

He added, “At this point, with where we are with petroleum product in this country, Stevedoring should not be applied to us. Stevedoring is in dollars or cents per litre. You don’t denominate your business in dollars because whatever we sell, we sell in naira and kobo. So, you can’t apply the same laws that you apply to upstream or midstream to downstream. That’s why I said that there’s a lack of understanding.
So the first thing to do is to engage the stakeholders in that sector. When you engage, then we can make a decision. For us, the decision is that they need to take stevedoring out of our costing template. We can’t apply it as we speak.
We need to talk about it. Do you understand our business? Let us describe what we do to you, and when we describe it, the resolution will be clear. As we have said, you can’t apply stevedoring to the downstream sector.”

“The authority in charge of stevedoring is the NPA, and they are part of the government. We have to engage them extensively, and like all government parastatals, they do not listen; they just stick to the fact that it has been gazetted and is law,” a concerned stakeholder noted.

Meanwhile, the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, (MWUN) had in August said the level of engagement of indigenous Stevedoring firms on oil platforms across the country currently stands at 60 percent.

President General of MWUN, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju while speaking with newsmen said that most of the multi-national oil companies are beginning to engage stevedoring contractors.

Adeyanju, also said that although the NPA was yet to disclose the number of IOCs that are complying, there has been a steady increase in level of compliance.

“The level of compliance by the IOCs on the engagement of Stevedoring companies has reached 60 percent. The once powerful multi-national companies are now engaging Stevedoring companies.
And the Nigerian Ports Authority, has not been able to tell us the number of the IOCs that are complying, they should tell us how these IOCs are obeying the Stevedoring extant laws. The bulk of the matter lies with the NPA “.

Continuing, he adds, “For the Union, they have seen our reactions, if ExxonMobil, Texaco and those big multi nationals engage the services of Stevedoring contractor appointed by the NPA, the level of compliance will be getting better “.

Oil Industry watchers, however, posited that while OICs and other players in the Upstream and Midstream Sectors of the Oil Industry need to sign on to the Stevedoring Regulations, the same cannot be said of the downstream sector players who operate in peculiar circumstances where their businesses are denominated in local currency, Naira, in addition to the fact that such extra costs to be incurred could either lead to a hike in fuel prices or irrecoverable additional costs to the operators in the sector.

Some stakeholders in the Nigerian downstream oil and gas sector have expressed concerns about the inclusion of additional costs that were not originally included in their pricing template. They have singled out Stevedoring as one of the costs that were added without prior agreement.

According to the stakeholders, while stevedoring (the act of loading or offloading cargo to and/or from a ship) is a common practice in other sectors of the oil and gas industry, such as upstream and midstream, it cannot be accommodated in the downstream sector’s costing template at the moment.

Said one of the top Executives of an oil marketing company: “For the downstream business, which is where we are at, yes, the upstream business is slightly different. They run their transactions dollar-based. So I guess they can pay money in dollars. We (downstream players) run our transactions in Naira. Everybody knows that Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) is not deregulated yet; that is the truth, the reality. “

“So given the restriction there, it even makes it difficult to accommodate any other cost that is not within that pricing structure. The pricing structure is clear. It talks about vessels. It talks about anything that has to do with your vessel’s activity. It is specific. If you log on to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) websites, you will see that there’s nowhere where stevedoring is mentioned,” added this stakeholder.

He noted further: “When they start to introduce those things into that cost structure, then we are unable to sell, or rather, it’s either you are selling at a loss because you are including costs that are not in regulated templates, or you can’t sell within the limitation of the regulated price.

I don’t know; sometimes I feel as if a lot of these things are done due to a lack of knowledge. So if you give Stevedoring to the upstream companies, their system is robust enough. It has a deregulated structure.

But we should always know that you can’t be saying you want us to reduce costs and, on the government side, keep increasing them. So yes, there’s an act guiding it.”

Given the prevailing uncertain situation,  downstream sector stakeholders are calling on the Federal Government and regulatory agencies like Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to involve major stakeholders before making rules and signing such policies and initiatives into law.

“First, the government should engage the stakeholders; people shouldn’t sit where they sit and just make rules around things they know very little about. So it is not just about what the downstream sector wants. Let’s engage so that you better understand our business”

He added, “At this point, with where we are with petroleum product in this country, Stevedoring should not be applied to us. Stevedoring is in dollars or cents per litre. You don’t denominate your business in dollars because whatever we sell, we sell in naira and kobo. So, you can’t apply the same laws that you apply to upstream or midstream to downstream. That’s why I said that there’s a lack of understanding.

So the first thing to do is to engage the stakeholders in that sector. When you engage, then we can make a decision. For us, the decision is that they need to take stevedoring out of our costing template. We can’t apply it as we speak.

We need to talk about it. Do you understand our business? Let us describe what we do to you, and when we describe it, the resolution will be clear. As we have said, you can’t apply stevedoring to the downstream sector.”

“The authority in charge of stevedoring is the NPA, and they are part of the government. We have to engage them extensively, and like all government parastatals, they do not listen; they just stick to the fact that it has been gazetted and is law,” a concerned stakeholder noted.

Meanwhile, the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, (MWUN) had in August said the level of engagement of indigenous Stevedoring firms on oil platforms across the country currently stands at 60 percent.

President General of MWUN, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju while speaking with newsmen said that most of the multi-national oil companies are beginning to engage stevedoring contractors.

Adeyanju, also said that although the NPA was yet to disclose the number of IOCs that are complying, there has been a steady increase in the level of compliance.

“The level of compliance by the IOCs on the engagement of Stevedoring companies has reached 60 percent. The once powerful multi-national companies are now engaging Stevedoring companies.

And the Nigerian Ports Authority, has not been able to tell us the number of the IOCs that are complying, they should tell us how these IOCs are obeying the Stevedoring extant laws. The bulk of the matter lies with the NPA “.

Continuing, he adds, “For the Union, they have seen our reactions, if ExxonMobil, Texaco and those big multi nationals engage the services of Stevedoring contractor appointed by the NPA, the level of compliance will be getting better “.

Oil Industry watchers, however, posited that while OICs and other players in the Upstream and Midstream Sectors of the Oil Industry need to sign on to the Stevedoring Regulations, the same cannot be said of the downstream sector players who operate in peculiar circumstances where their businesses are denominated in local currency, Naira, in addition to the fact that such extra costs to be incurred could either lead to a hike in fuel prices or irrecoverable additional costs to the operators in the sector.

In the midst of despair, there is a beam of hope once again as Nigeria goes on green with the launch and distribution of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)-powered buses nationwide from this week, to ease the transportation challenges brought about by subsidy removal.
This is not only a dream come true but a fulfillment of an agreement resulting from the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by the federal government with the organized Labour on October 15, 2023.
Recall that the federal government had agreed to vote N100 billion for the provision of high capacity CNG buses for mass transit in Nigeria as part of the deal to ameliorate the pains of fuel subsidy removal. Besides, Provisions have been made for initial 55,000 CNG conversion kits to kick start an auto gas conversion programme, whilst work is ongoing on state-of-the-art CNG stations nationwide. Already, the roll out programme commenced in Lagos a few weeks ago and so far seven CNG conversion centers have been established in the country.
More than 1,000 of such centers will be opened nationwide in the next few years, with 55,000 conversions planned under the palliative programme that has kicked off, designed to reduce the cost of transportation, especially mass transit for poor Nigerians while creating over 2,000 jobs, converting vehicles from PMS to CNG Bi-fuel that runs cheaper, cleaner and better.
What this means is that, in a few days to come, Nigerians shall begin to see CNG powered vehicles on the roads.
This brought to bear the promises made by the President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on October 1, 2023. In his broadcast to the nation, Tinubu declared deployment of CNG buses nationwide with a target of one million on the roads by 2027.
According to the Programme Director of the Presidential CNG Initiative, Michael Oluwagbemi, conversion to CNG buses holds importance for Nigerians and the global shift towards responsible energy selections. This, he said, extends a hand to a greener, more sustainable and affordable future.
“We are not just changing how we fuel our vehicles; we are changing lives, one job at a time”, he echoed
CNG-powered mass transit buses would help Nigerians save two-thirds of transportation cost, and also promote the use of CNG as an alternative to petrol. This in return will cut down the cost of transportation across the country.
The Special Assistant to the President on Special Duties and Domestic Affairs, Toyin Subaru, puts it succinctly : “We are going to develop an app that will enable you to locate where a CNG station is located. We should be able to buy gas for our cars at N230 per kg as against the cost of petrol which is N680 per litre. This should help every Nigerian save about two-thirds of their transport cost.”
“Our goal in the presidential CNG initiative, as stated by the President in his October 1 speech is to make 55,000 conversion kits immediately available to the Nigerian public so that we can begin to jumpstart the CNG revolution. The palliative programme as described by the President will last until March 31, 2024. So, technically speaking, we are expected to roll out 55,000 within that time frame”, he stated
In a few days too, the fleet of CNG powered buses promised by Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) will arrive. The buses which were assembled locally, to reduce pressure on forex, will also provide a lot more jobs for the teaming populace. Sources close to the Association hinted that the CNG powered buses, already delivered to Abuja, may be commissioned by the President any moment from now.
Analysts have urged top players in the organised private sector to emulate the DAPPMAN example in strongly supporting the federal government’s clear determination and commitment to reduce the exasperating effect of subsidy withdrawal on the people .
They are of the view that Nigerians may begin to see, even in a short time, the price of CNG crashing to N230 per kg and consequently, crash transportation cost.
This, however, gives credence to the fact that the government is not left alone in cushioning the effects of fuel subsidy removal. This will lead to less pressure on PMS or Petrol and brings down the price locally.
The good news is that the federal government has not stopped at that. The $10 billion foreign exchange pumped into the money market has started yielding some impact on the economy as the Naira is gradually regaining its strength against the dollar which exchanged at N900 to a dollar on Monday. This was against N1,250 to a dollar in the previous week.
This invariably will encourage the oil marketers to return to the business as they have access to foreign exchange which had become an albatross to stable supply of fuel into the country in recent times.
It is also anticipated that with access to foreign exchange, a level playing field will be created in the industry while also encouraging a competitive market as more players enter the market . This will in return create more employment opportunities for the youths in the country.

When Tuesday October 30, 2023, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu wrote to the Senate to seek approval for N2.18 trillion Supplementary Budget, he did not mince words in pointing at the urgency of the matter at issue.

Urging the Senate to “speedily” approve the budget, it was obvious, even to the law makers that the matter at hand requires expeditious attention.

And at the heart of that request, requiring speedy attention is the implementation of the 15-point Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, signed by the government and Labour Unions Leaders on October 3, 2023 in Abuja.

The agreement includes the Federal Government approval of a wage award of N35,000 to all Federal Government workers beginning from the month of September pending when a new national minimum wage is expected to have been signed into law, suspension of collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) on Diesel for six months beginning from October, 2023.
Federal Government also agreed to vote N100 billion for the provision of high capacity CNG buses for mass transit in Nigeria. The Federal Government also agreed to pay N25,000 per month for three months starting from October, 2023 to 15 million vulnerable households, including pensioners, commitment on the part of the federal government to the provision of funds as announced by the President on the 1st of August broadcast to the Nation for Micro and Small Scale Enterprises. The MSMEs beneficiaries should commit to the principle of decent jobs.

The situation today is that the federal government, in a bid to stave off disruptive labour unrest, has commenced the implementation of the MOU.

The Supplementary Budget which the President sent to the Senate on Tuesday requiring speedy treatment was in a bid to appropriate the needed funds for the implementation of critical aspects of the MOU.

In that N2.18 trillion Supplementary Appropriation is the sum of N210 billion for the agreed wage award and another N400 billion for Cash Transfer to vulnerable households, while another N200 billion is for Seed and Agricultural Inputs and Equipment

Just last week Friday, seven CNG Conversion Centers were inaugurated with more coming up across the country, according to Zach Adedeji, Chairman of the CNG Conversion Committee, while two CNG buses were handed over to Olusesan Adebiyi, the State House Permanent Secretary, at the presidential villa, Abuja.

Provisions are also being made for initial 55,000 CNG conversion kits to kick start an Auto Gas Conversion Programme.

On Refineries, the Presidential Committee had visited the Refineries, ascertained their rehabilitation status and assured the nation that Warri Refinery and Petrochemicals would resume pumping of fuel before the end of the year.

In listening to the yearnings of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the President , Bola Ahmed Tinubu, last week approved a partial waiver of the “No Work, No Pay” order on members who participated in the last 8 months long strike and ordered the release of four months of their withheld salaries.

In a similar vein, in commemoration of the 2023 International Day for the Eradication of Poverty last week, President Tinubu launched the disbursement of N25,000 to 15 million households for three months as a social safety net.

To complement the efforts of the Federal Government and avert a face off with Labour is the commendable moves by some private sector players as exemplified by the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria, DAPPMAN, an Association that threw its weight behind the government’s decision to end the subsidy regime and to deregulate the downstream sector of the oil industry. DAPPMAN, leading other oil marketers, are now ready to donate a number of CNG buses to the federal government to help mitigate the effects of petrol subsidy removal.

According to DAPPMAN chairman, Dame Winifred Akpani, the donation is to support the federal government’s post-subsidy palliative measures.
She said: “We collectively agreed that we’re going to work at providing real mass transit buses that work. The ones that run on CNG, which is a compressed natural gas and diesel interchangeably,” the DAPPMAN Chair said.

For this marketers’ association, it is walking the talk. DAPPMAN had been in the forefront of the calls for the removal of fuel subsidy affirming repeatedly that it will put an end to fuel scarcity, eliminate unnecessary hardship on Nigerians seeking to buy fuel, reduce waste and stimulate responsible consumption of this petrol .

Now that the federal government has yielded to the calls and abolished the subsidy, DAPPMAN has also taken the lead in support of government’s bold and creative actions towards cushioning the harsh effects of the subsidy termination.

Another good news is that of the planned injection of fresh $10 billion into the Nigerian economy in the coming weeks. This, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun says would provide the much-needed relief to a liquidity squeeze that has been adversely affecting the Naira.

He emphasized that the substantial inflow is expected to play a significant role in bolstering Nigeria’s economic stability and alleviating the pressures on the national currency.

It is also anticipated that the fresh inflow will help to open the official forex window to oil marketers to accelerate their quick return to business and begin fuel importation to help stabilise fuel supply and distribution.

Other experts have added that government should look into streamlining the cost of importation of fuel by charging the taxes in local currency. This, they insist, will reduce the cost of fuel import and further help to reduce the price of fuel for Nigerians thus complementing government’s much needed efforts in this direction.

Other efforts by the government to boost forex inflow is the $3bn emergency loan the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) secured from Afreximbank.

An analyst said: “Goldman Sachs is an external asset manager to the CBN, so using NNPC’s account that CBN manages with Goldman as an unsecured credit line to tap $10bn for the purposes of clearing outstanding forwards and stabilizing the exchange rate back to the N800 range is plausible,” he said.
“This means that Goldman Sachs will net off gas revenues from WAGPCO and NLNG over an extended period to repay back.”

This approach, which involves an upfront cash loan against proceeds from a limited amount of future crude oil production, was used by the NNPCL to secure the $3 billion emergency loan from Afreximbank.

With all these proactive measures aimed at meeting the agreements reached with labour and to reignite the economy with the ultimate objective of engendering economic growth and alleviating poverty, the contention out there is that the labour/government face off is about to be resolved for the benefits of all Nigerians.

Said Olusesan Ige, an Abuja based Media Content Creator: “The fact on ground today is that the federal government has shown good faith, good intentions, it is obvious, even for the Labour also to see. The issue of ultimatum no longer holds. I think labour will sheath the sword now that all their requests are being swiftly attended to.”