In the face of current economic crunch in the country, members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) have appealed to the federal government to provide them with financial intervention that will assist operators in the downstream petroleum sector to sustain the business.
Speaking with journalists in Ilorin, the national public relations officer of the petroleum marketers, Alhaji Okanlawon Olanrewaju, who lamented high interest rate in commercial banks, said that securing loan for business in banks is killing.
The IPMAN official said that oil marketers’ business is service-oriented and essential, adding that federal government should assist the sector with about N20 billion loan or grant to ensure adequate and improved supply of the commodity.
“Everyone knows that the economic situation in the country is tough. By the grace of God, as an association we’re moving forward in our businesses.
“The challenges we were having was about supply and I think we’re getting there. Very soon, we’ll be getting our products direct from Dangote oil refinery. By then, everything would be easier.
“So, the Federal Government can come in in form of assistance to IPMAN members. Presently, sources of getting fund in Nigeria is not that easy. The bank interest rate is so high. Doing anything with commercial banks attract very high interest rate. So, because of that, we think government can give grants to operators in the downstream sector in oil industry. Such form of assistance can even be routed through the Bank of Industry (BOI) to us”.
Alhaji Okanlawon, who said that the BOI is supposed to help the association, lamented that the government bank has not been of assistance to the association.
“BOI doesn’t disburse financial assistance to us in the petroleum downstream sector, which is not supposed to be the case. Our business is service-oriented. Which is important and essential. They should give us the retailers financial assistance with much cheaper interest loan to do our business, so that by the time they’re giving us the loan, supply would be improving. Interest rate in commercial banks is like 35 or 36%. That’s killing. No one can do business that way”, he said.
The IPMAN national spokesperson assured the government that the fund would be well managed for the purpose, saying that, “FG can give IPMAN as an association like N20 billion loan. They can be assured that it will be well managed because our association is well secured. The FG can even pass it through the BOI to supervise for individual members of the association to access it.
“With the present situation, there is no business of this kind of nature any where in the world that government didn’t come in to intervene by rendering one form of assistance or the other. So, Nigeria’s case should not be an exception. There should be financial intervention from the FG to assist and cushion the economic pressure on the marketers”.
On reported low patronage among some petrol filling stations owned by oil marketers in the country and their eventual close down, the IPMAN national PRO debunked the report, saying that IPMAN members are not closing down their stations.
“There’s nothing like that. Everyone knows the situation of things in the country is tough because of the way prices of goods and services are going up astronomically. It’s normal, but we’re still coping with the situation of things. We’re still in business. A lot of our money are with the NNPC but they’ve started giving out products now. And if they allow us, we’ll still pay in. So, there’s nothing like closing down. We’re still in business and we’re giving all necessary support to the present administration. In fact, the IPMAN present, Alhaji Shettima Girima, always insist that there must be supply of products in all parts of the country. He doesn’t joke with anything like that.”
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