Currency Devaluation And Banks Responsible For Fuel Scarcity-PPPRA.

The Executive Secretary of of the Petroleum Products Price Regulating Agency (PPPRA), Mr. Farouk Ahmed has said that currency devaluation and banks were responsible for the present fuel scarcity witnessed all over the country.

Farouk spoke Monday in Abuja, when a team from parastals and agencies under the ministry inspected some filling stations in Abuja to access the level of scarcity and queues.
Speaking, he said: “The problem actually started when banks were reluctant to issue letters to marketers for importation and this was compounded by the naira devaluation by the CBN which brought some confusion into system.
“However, all this said and done the Minister of Finance had already approved payment issuance authority to marketers against 15th and 30th of March. Payment will be coming in the case of the differential in the foreign exchange and interest which is the concern of both the marketers as well as the banks.
“The minister has been working closely with the stakeholders especially the DMO and PPPRA and has already issued the first batch of payment to 17 marketers and then we are working on the second batch. All what we are doing now is to do the verification payment of marketers for the second batch and there is already a lot of confidence between the marketers and the suppliers.”