Ayeeshat J Ahmad
PETROLEUM marketers have decried a substantial drop in sales following the Bola Tinubu-led administration’s enforcement of proper deregulation (Petroleum subsidy removal) of the petroleum downstream sector.
The product, which currently sells above N1,000 in most filling station retail outlets across Nigeria, has caused a major shift in transport spending, with many middle-class Nigerians now opting for public transportation.
The marketers, as a result, lamented low patronage because of the high cost of the Petroleum product, adding that forces of demand and supply may force the price downward shortly.
The National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Billy Gillis-Harry who spoke on the development told The The TIMES HAUSA that the current PMS pricing is affecting the sales and purchasing power of most middle-class Nigerians.
Gillis-Harry said, “Marketers, retail outlet owners, all of us in the industry are finding it difficult to cope with the current situation, we used to buy 45,000 litres of fuel a couple of months ago for less than N8.5 millio but tonday, we have to cough out about N49 million to buy the product.
“Financial institutions are not coming to our rescue. The cost of money is so high, it is so difficult to even sell, what we get to our retail outlets is not quickly bought because Nigerians also have the challenge with their buying power,” he added.
He stressed the chances of price coming down if there is seed funding to support major marketers at the single-digit interest rate.
Commenting in the same vein, the official spokesperson of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) Ukadike Chinedu, told The TIMES HAUSA that filling stations nationwide have become ghost places as middle-class Nigerians have abandoned their vehicles and embraced public transportation.
“Most of the money we use in investing is bank money. It’s being borrowed and the interest rate is also high. There is no return on investment because the more we sell, the more we make profits,” Chinedu said.
“Now the volume of trade in the filling stations is very low because of the characteristics of the buyers who have now dropped some of their luxury vehicles with V8 and are now using alternative transportation.