By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The Federal Government of Nigeria has granted approval to six companies to commence the import of petroleum motor spirit (PMS) into the country with effect from July, dislodging the monopoly of fuel import which before now solely rested on the hand of the state-owned Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
Authorities also announced that other companies have submitted applications, indicating interest to commence fuel import before the end of the year.
Contrary to speculations however, the federal government said Dangote Group, a firm that recently unveiled the first privately-owned refinery in the West African country is not among the six companies licensed for fuel import.
“There are six companies who said they want to import fuel in July. Of course, all the others may import in December in November, or anytime but those who expressed interest to bring in fuel in July there were six of them as of this morning.
“The beauty of it is that there are interests which means that they have been able to have access to foreign exchange in order to import.
“Now, as we go along, of course, we’ll be briefing you on the progress or the achievements so far, but the important thing is that NNPC has 30 days fuel sufficiency, so we do not anticipate any gap in supply or in distribution”, the Managing Director of Nigeria Mainstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDRA), Farouk Ahmed told reporters at State House Abuja on Monday.
He said there are several companies that applied for fuel importation permit and anyone can apply for importation to get access to the port as the authority is open to all those interested in importing.
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu has taken steps to stop ship owners from withdrawing their vessels over what they see as excessive back charges.
The Special Adviser to the President on Revenue, Zacchaeus Adedeji, who led government officials in an interactive session with shipping stakeholders at the State House, warned that Nigeria cannot afford not to have vessels move in and out of the country.
Reports had suggested that at least two ship owners said they were keeping their vessels away from Nigeria after a series of multimillion dollar tax bills were sent out, seeking to recover back unpaid duties from 2010 to 2019.
