Petrol Marketers Deeply Complain On Low Patronage At Filling Stations

Fuel marketers have bemoaned the lack of business at their retail locations across the country as the cost of a liter of gasoline has risen to above ₦1,000 at the majority of filling stations in Nigeria.

The marketers claimed that due to high prices and poor returns on investment, they are currently reducing their workforce and work shifts.

On Monday’s episode of Channels Television’s The Morning Brief breakfast show, Billy Gillis-Harry, the National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), was featured.

The PETROAN CEO appeared on the show alongside Ukadike Chinedu, a representative of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN).

“All of us in the industry, including marketers and retail outlet owners, are finding it difficult to cope with the current situation, we used to buy,” Gillis-Harry stated. 45,000 liters of fuel cost less than 8.5 million naira a few months ago, but now we must pay almost 49 million naira to purchase the goods.

“Financial organizations are not saving us. Because Nigerians also struggle with their purchasing power, the cost of money is so high, it is very difficult to even sell, and what we get to our retail outlets is not immediately purchased.

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According to IPMAN spokeswoman Ukadike Chinedu, middle-class Nigerians have given up driving their cars and switched to public transit, turning gas stations around the country into abandoned locations.

“Bank funds make up the majority of the money we invest. In addition to being borrowed, the interest rate is considerable. There isn’t a refund for investment since we generate greater income the more we sell,” Chinedu stated.

The features of the consumers who have now dropped some of their luxury automobiles with V8 and are now utilizing alternative modes of transportation have resulted in a very low volume of commerce in the filling stations.

“You may discover that there is skeletal or ghost buying at some of the filling stations these days, as two or three automobiles will simply pull in and buy. Discussions concerning scarcity have given way to discussions about pricing differences.

Similar to the aviation and agriculture industries, the two unions urged President Bola Tinubu to give oil marketers ₦100 billion as a seed capital to help them stay afloat.

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Nigerians struggle with the burden of the Tinubu administration’s record-breaking food inflation and energy prices, which have doubled in the past year. In particular, the cost of gasoline increased from less than ₦200 to more than ₦1,000 per liter. Many have attributed the high cost of living that has hit the middle class to the dual policy of eliminating gasoline subsidies and unified exchange rates.

The current administration has maintained that its measures are essential and will not be undone despite two significant rallies organized by citizens to highlight their dissatisfaction with the Tinubu administration and to put pressure on the All Progressives Congress (APC) government to undo its “reforms.”