Oil marketers have urged the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, and the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, to comply with the Federal Government’s directive to end payment of port charges in dollars for petroleum products brought into the country.

The Second Vice Chairman, Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria, DAPPMAN, Mammod Tukur, in a statement yesterday said the directive given by the government a year ago had not been followed by NIMASA and NPA.

Recall that following a meeting of the heads of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Agency, NMDPRA, NNPC Limited, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN and DAPPMAN, in November 2021, the government had directed that ports charges should be collected in naira.

The marketers, however, revealed that both NIMASA and NPA had continued to collect the charges in dollars.

Tukur explained: “Some years ago, the Vice President chaired a meeting which included the Chief of Staff, talking about the fact that marketers having to pay port charges to NPA and to NIMASA in dollars was no longer acceptable because it was affecting the sector.

“A directive was given that these agencies should henceforth charge marketers in naira. That has not been implemented. That’s a major challenge.

“The price of dollars is practically driven by demand. If there’s no supply, then obviously the price will rise. So in this instance, every time a vessel needs to berth, we have to pay port charges in dollars.”

He pointed out the failure to comply with the director was one of the reasons the Naira continued to depreciate against the dollar, since the foreign currency was in short supply.

“If these products are consumed locally and are destined for local ports, then why are the NPA and NIMASA charging in dollars?

”They should simply implement a directive given by the government and we can assure that this will also bring down the price of petroleum products,” he said.

On her part, the Chairman, DAPPMAN, Winifred Akpani, explained how the foreign exchange conundrum was affecting petroleum marketers.

She said: “For example, to charter a vessel to convey 20,000 metric tonnes of PMS within Nigeria for 10 days, freight charges are denominated in dollars, that comes to about N220m at official forex rate of N440 and a whooping N440m for petroleum marketers who have to source forex from the parallel market at N880.

“This implies an additional cost of N11 per litre for this transaction due to the forex official/parallel market differential. For this same transaction, Jetty fees, again charged in dollars, comes to N15.4m at official forex rates and N30.8m for petroleum marketers who source from the parallel market.

“In the same vein, Jetty berth is charged in dollars and comes to N2.2m at official forex rate and N4.4m at parallel market rate. Then there are port dues (NPA and NIMASA), which are charged in dollars, which come to N71.51m at official forex rate and N142.796m for marketers who source forex from the parallel market.”

Akpani described this as quite burdensome and had made operational expenses and procurement increasingly difficult for DAPPMAN members.

VANGUARD