FG pays oil marketers N236bn to avert strike, stops banks from placing interests on their loans

- Henry Ikem-Obih, the chief operating officer of the NNPC confirms that oil marketers have been paid N236 billion as first tranche of subsidy payment

- The federal government, through the CBN, also asks banks to halt interests on the loans to oil marketers

- The NNPC says the country has enough petrol to last the country for 54 days

The chief operating officer, downstream, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Henry Ikem-Obih, has confirmed that the federal government has paid the agreed N236 billion as first tranche of the outstanding subsidy claims to oil marketers.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ikem-Obi disclosed this in an Interview on Monday, December 17, in Abuja adding that government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), had directed banks to freeze interest on loans related to the scheme.

“Yes, I can confirm that the promissory note has been issued; in fact, they were ready on Wednesday. The marketers got emails inviting them to come and receive them on Monday.

“By the end of Tuesday, they were actually ready from the Debt Management Office (DMO). We had a meeting with the CBN governor on Thursday and they were informed officially, the director general of DMO was there that they should pick up the promissory note.

“Most of them were waiting for that meeting with the CBN governor, it went very well. One of the things that CBN governor has taken the initiative to do is to ask the banks to freeze the interest on any loan that are related to that scheme, the outstanding payment, from end of June 2017 to date.

“Those are some of the additional concessions that government has done,” he said while adding that the promissory notes for this first tranche will mature by 2019.

“The CBN governor will give the liquid assets status; so, it is as good as cash,” he added stressing that at the moment, the country had in stock 2.7 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) that would last for 54 days and still importing.

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“We are very good with distribution in terms of how much products is on land because 2.8 billion litres is what is between Lagos waters and land.

“Most farm tanks cannot receive PMS at the moment; our vessels have to queue for days to be able to discharge to the storage,” he said.

By Eromosele Ebhomele