The Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN says the NNPC Limited has more than enough supply of petroleum products to go round the country.
There have been resurgent queues in filling stations across the country leaving many people wasting man hours trying to get PMS.
The President of IPMAN, Chinedu Okoronkwo, on Wednesday attributed the problem to distribution bottlenecks arising from dollarisation.
He said petroleum marketers who were expecting to get the products from tank farm owners at N148.19 per litre, now receive the products at N185 to N210.
“Their excuse will be that they hired vessels to take it from the mother vessel, pay all these charges, and some of these things are dollarised, so you have no choice. I think we can come together as a country to see how we solve some of these dollarisation things, as we can use Naira to purchase these things.
“Those who have the muscle and everything to buy will buy. No, this product is there. It’s because of what I’ve just said. NNPC has enough stock but it is because of this distribution thing; that is where we need to do something.
“IPMAN has about five zones. You can deposit some of these products in various zones so that their accessibility will still be at a cost that is not even that big. We are ready to chip in something to cushion some of these things so that we can still remain within the margin. I think that is the way to go.”
Similarly, former President of the Trade Union Congress TUC, Peter Esele also attributed the long queues to an ongoing issue of distribution and pricing.