CEM REPORT | Airline Operators would get supply of Aviation Fuel (Jet-A1) from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) at N480 per litre for a period of three months.
This temporal remedy is to keep the Airlines operational while a lasting solution is implemented to forestall the controversy often caused by aviation fuel prices
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila who presided over a meeting of stakeholders, remarked Monday, after the meeting that three resolutions were reached in the interim between the stakeholders
He said: “In the long term, you commence the process of applying for your own licence to be able to import your own Jet fuel. So, that will remove, whether it is middlemen or frontmen or whatever. You will know the landing cost to assist you in your business. Have we agreed on that? We have agreed on that.
“And there is the benevolence of the governor of Central Bank; there are six million litres available at N480, correct? You will get allocation for the next three months through the companies that you have nominated. So that you will not come back and say Jet fuel is a particular amount and is being sold by NNPC because you nominated those people that are selling to you.”
Other attendees at the meeting that lasted about four hours are Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Wase, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele; and the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, and others stakeholders.
Earlier, the NNPC Ltd GMD, Mele Kyari stated that it was agreed at the earlier meeting to make the marketers sell the product to them at N500 for three days pending the day they would sit down and agree on the pricing formula.
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He said: “It is our role to ensure we intervene. We did. We brought in products so that we can dampen the price. In March and April, we brought in cargo and made it available to the entire industry at N460. There is a build-up to that price.
Kyari explained that there is a ForeX constraint. “There is a limit to what the CBN can provide. We are constrained because we are not able to produce dollars because of the dearth of oil in the Niger Delta. This is the reality… That means customers must source for FX from alternative sources.”
Godwin Emeifile confirmed this saying: “The availability of Forex is very important and the issue of constraint from Forex arising from issues bordering on theft in the Niger Delta is a big issue. It is when NNPC is able to export that dollars can come in.
“We do not have FX to sell. It would be difficult for us to grant any concession. It means we would be taking a hit or we would be providing some sort of subsidy for the industry”.
Chairman of Air Peace, Allen Onyeama, who spoke on behalf of Airline Operators said they did not intend to strike but to draw attention to their heightening financial obligations
“We did not intend to go on a strike. It was not a strike. What the AON was saying on Friday when we released our communique was that we do not have the money anymore to pay.
“Even spare parts, sometimes you take the spare parts and pay later, not to talk of aviation. You don’t have to carry loads of naira in your cargo hold to pay. We all owe these marketers, yes, but we are servicing them.
“What we are doing actually is that we are fighting for this government and the poor masses of this nation. We are subsidising ticket fares at N50,000.”
