Category: West Africa

Petrol Station in Nigeria Photo: Daily Trust Abuja — As fuel scarcity bites harder nationwide, fresh facts emerged, yesterday, indicating that a combination of policies from Nigeria’s Central Bank and the high level of indebtedness of product marketers to some banks led to the low supply of Premium Motor Spirit PMS (petrol). Because of the high level of indebtedness of marketers to banks, most of the banks have refused to issue Letters of Credit to them. A competent source at the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, disclosed that "the National Consumption level is predicated at 40 million litres daily and this is shared at ratio 50:50 between NNPC and other petroleum products marketers. "Against the foregoing, available record shows that at the moment, NNPC is meeting its allocated ratio while other marketers have blatantly refused to contribute a drop of their own quota". The Federal Government, in a […]

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Abuja — THE ongoing fuel scarcity across Nigeria is a result of the looting of the $12 billion domestic gas fund under President Goodluck Jonathan’s watch and the administration’s failure to the pay fuel subsidy, the main opposition has alleged. The All Progressives Congress (APC), in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the People’s Democratic Party and the Jonathan administration decided to divert attention from those problems by accusing the opposition of being responsible for the scarcity, "a most laughable and irresponsible statement by a sitting government that is always so eager to blame everyone but itself for the nation’s woes." The party said Coordinating Minister of Economy and Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had, in February, promised to pay all subsidies owed to the marketers then in the sum of N264 billion, along with the accrued interest. It added that the failure to meet this […]

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ABUJA/LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) – Oil-rich Nigeria’s main cities are facing acute gasoline shortages as importers feel the pinch of a plummeting local currency, tighter credit lines and unpaid government subsidies, oil traders and local industry sources said. As queues of double-parked cars stretch outside filling stations in the capital Abuja, empty tanks elsewhere are forcing consumers onto the black market just weeks before presidential elections on March 28 in Africa’s biggest economy. "I have spent 12 hours here," taxi driver Bartholomew Odey Akpa told Reuters on Monday. "I work at the airport as a car hire … and there is no fuel for me to go." Nigeria exports around two million barrels per day of crude oil but is almost wholly reliant on imports for the 40 million litres per day of gasoline it consumes. The picture is an unwelcome one for President Goodluck Jonathan, who faces former […]

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Abuja — The fuel crisis in Abuja worsened weekend, as many of the petrol stations across the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, were shut down, leaving motorists stranded. This was in spite of claims by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, on Friday, that it is injecting about 688 million of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, into the market. Motorists had to resort to the black market‎, where roadside petrol sellers now sell the commodity for as high as N250 per litre. However, the NNPC, Sunday, promised that it is working to ensure that the situation is addressed quickly and assured Nigerians that the fuel supply situation will improve in the coming days. Responding to enquiries from Vanguard, spokesperson for the NNPC, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, said, "On Friday, we had stated that in 48 hours we will wet the market with 688 million litres of petrol. Distribution of products is by […]

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Lagos (Platts)–2Mar2015/519 am EST/1019 GMT A fresh round of gasoline shortages has hit Nigeria as fuel importers drastically cut imports following the government’s delay in settle over Naira 264 billion ($1.41 billion) on debts owed on subsidies for previous imports. Moreover, Nigerian businesses, hard hit by the fuel shortage, Monday restated their demand that the government completely abolish subsidies on imported fuel, saying it would avoid recurring shortages and free up resources. Motorists formed long queues at gas stations in major cities including the federal capital Abuja and the commercial capital of Lagos, which marketers blamed on low fuel stocks. "Most marketers have run out of stocks over the last two weeks because of the drop in imports," Femi Lawore, spokesman for the main oil marketers group, told Platts. "We have warned the government before about the danger of continuing to delay the outstanding claims on subsidies totaling N264 […]

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Miffed by the uncounted $20 billion, the House of Representatives has Wednesday issued a one week ultimatum to the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the economy Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to submit the report of the forensic audit. The mandate followed a resolution, passed last week by the House at plenary which directed its Committee on Public Accounts, otherwise called PAC, to investigate the matter. Chairman of the committee, Hon. Solomon Adeola Olamilekan (APC, Lagos) while briefing Journalists on the matter stated that the report "must include the Initial Draft Report, the Executive Summary and Management/Internal Control Letters." Olamilekan noted that the "condensed version" of the report released to the public through a press conference addressed by the Auditor-General of the Federation with the highlight that Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) should remit a minimum of $1.48 billion to the Federation Account had rather prompted the demand for complete […]

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ABUJA, Nigeria—Nigeria on Wednesday cut its forecast for oil prices and the value of its currency this year, an acknowledgment of the pain tumbling energy costs are inflicting on Africa’s top crude producer. The senate voted to cut its benchmark expectation for oil prices this year to $52 a barrel, from $65 in December. Senators also pegged the average value of the local currency, the naira, this year at 190 to the U.S. dollar, well below the previous target of 165 to the greenback. Brent crude traded at about $59 a barrel on Wednesday and one dollar was worth about 200 naira. The currency has plunged to record lows this year as oil prices have lingered at about half their value just six months ago. Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, draws about 70% of government revenue and most of its foreign exchange earnings from its oil output. The plummeting value […]

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(Bloomberg) — Nigeria’s government revenue fell 15 percent in January as falling oil prices eroded the income of Africa’s biggest crude producer. Revenue fell to 416.1 billion naira ($2.1 billion) in January compared with 490 billion naira a month earlier, Accountant-General Jonah Otunla said Wednesday in an e-mailed statement. The volume of oil exports declined 33 percent in November and December, resulting in $159.88 million of lost revenue, Otunla said. Nigeria has “suffered a substantial loss in revenue as a result of the massive drop in crude oil price at the international oil market,” he said. The continent’s largest economy has been hit by the halving in Brent crude prices since the middle of last year as the West African nation prepares for presidential elections next month. Nigeria relies on export of the commodity for more than 90 percent of foreign exchange income and 70 percent of government revenue. […]

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Abubakar Shekau, leader of Boko Haram. The insurgents distributed leaflets in the town advising residents not to vote in the presidential and legislative elections, which were delayed from Feb. 14. Source: AP Photo (Bloomberg) — The leader of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram vowed in a new video to disrupt Nigeria’s rescheduled general elections starting March 28. “This election will not hold even if we are dead,” Abubakar Shekau said in the video posted on Twitter, which couldn’t be independently verified. “Allah will not even allow it to happen.” Shekau claimed responsibility for a Feb. 14 attack on the northeastern state capital of Gombe, where detained militants were freed. The insurgents distributed leaflets in the town advising residents not to vote in the presidential and legislative elections, which were delayed from Feb. 14. Boko Haram has escalated its six-year-old campaign to impose Islamic law on Nigeria, Africa’s biggest […]

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Despite a recommendation by a government-appointed auditor that it should refund $1.48 billion (about N248.6 billion Naira) to the federation account, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, insisted Wednesday that it was not indicted by the investigations carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The Group Managing Director, GMD, of the NNPC, Joseph Dawha, said the investigations carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers over the alleged missing $20 billion oil money, did not indict the corporation in anyway. Mr. Dawha said the report "has clearly vindicated our long held position that the alleged unremitted crude oil revenue was a farce from day one". He said the $1.48billion the corporation was directed to refund was actually the balance of the book value of the divested assets transferred to NNPC upstream subsidiary, the NPDC, excluding taxes and royalties. "This does not constitute indictment; rather this value is still being reconciled with the Department of Petroleum Resources […]

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