The Independent Oil marketers have complained that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) portal which is used to purchase petrol has been shut against dealers, preventing them from applying for the commodity purchase.
They said their marketers are also awaiting over 90 million litres of petrol from the state-owned company which is valued at about N79 billion.
Though the NNPCL spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, last month confirmed that the company purchase portal was shutdown due to a significant backlog. Soneye further explained that the shutdown became necessary to stop NNPC from holding marketers’ capital for too long.
He had assured marketers that the portal would be reopened after the backlog had been reduced as they had been working hard to address it.
Though NNPCL did not disclose the value of the ‘huge backlogs’, some independent marketers said they have over 2,000 tickets yet to be cleared with NNPC. The portal is still yet to be opened after its lock since 12th of September when it was reported.
The Petroleum Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) also confirmed that its members could not access the NNPC purchasing portal.
Meanwhile, the marketers explained that they have since been patronising private depot owners, who sell petrol to them at a premium and this is why their product is more expensive in their filling stations than in NNPCL outlets.
According to them, payments will be made through the portal while the marketer waits for months to get the product.
At the moment, the marketers said they want to buy petrol directly from Dangote to ensure price parity.
