IPMAN raises alarm as banks threaten to take over stations

  

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) on Friday cried out over the imminent move of some commercial banks to take over some petrol stations following their loan repayment defaults.

According to its Vice President, Alhaji Abubakar Maigandi Dankigari, who disclosed this to The Nation at Abuja, the marketers could not service their loans because the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has refused to supply their over N60 billion petrol tickets since two years ago.

He revealed that instead of loading whatever volume of petrol the over N60 billion can buy at the new pump price, the NNPC is requesting them to pay the balance before providing the products.

He added that it is even now cheaper to buy petrol from independent depots than NNPC, which has used the ploy to tie down their fund.

The Vice President noted that the marketers know that even after paying the balance that NNPC is requesting for, it will still take a very long time for them to get the products, hence they have resorted to patronize the private depots.

This, he said, has made it impossible for the marketers to repay of servicing loans.

However, all efforts by The Nation to contact the NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Malam Garba Deen Muhammad for the corporation’s side of the story, proved abortive as no reply was given to all messages put forward.

Meanwhile, Dankigari maintained: “The implication is so high because we borrow most of the money from the bank. Automatically if NNPC refuses to load, you will find out that some of our marketers will lose their filling stations.

“Already the banks are in courts with some of the filling stations because they failed to repay the banks. So, I am advising the NNPC to try as much as possible to load the product to the marketers so that the marketers don’t lose their filling stations. And you know that losing their filling stations means a creation of another unemployment.”

Suggesting what NNPC should do in the situation, he advised that it should either refund the money to the marketers or sell what their outstanding N60 billion can buy to them.

The Vice President added that it would be better for them to recover the over N60 billion from NNPC and buy from the private depots.

He lamented about the rate at which the corporation sells petrol to the independent marketers, stressing that NNPC now sells the product at a higher rate than private depots.

His words: “And then secondly in terms of the rate, NNPC is selling the product to the marketers at the rate of N133.28k per litre while the private depots are selling this product at the rate of N128 per litre.

“And this same NNPC when you buy N133.28 from them, they will come to their filling stations and be selling this product at the rate of N135 per litre. So where do you expect the marketers to make their profit?

“So it will be better for NNPC to refund our money so that we can buy from the private depots.

But now our money is with them and whether you like it or not you must bring your money and that is the reason they are selling it at a higher rate to us and it is affecting our business.

“And even if you complete the balance, they will create a delay tactic -before you load it will take a very long time. And that is why you see some of the marketers now abandon the NNPC tickets and they are buying from the private depots. Because they know that even after paying the balance that NNPC is asking for it is going to take a very long time for them (marketers) to get their products.”