As Nigerians battle the persistent fuel crisis, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company has shut its petrol application portal against marketers, suspending fresh orders due to a huge backlog that has not been cleared.
At the moment, marketers said they could not access the portal through which they apply to NNPC for the purchase of petrol.
From our findings marketers usually bid for PMS through the NNPC portal.
According to them, payments will be made through the same channel while the marketer waits for months to get the product.
Recently, officials of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, reported that NNPC had stopped loading the trucks of IPMAN members, especially after the recent hike in petrol prices.
IPMAN members operate over 70 per cent of filling stations nationwide.
They expressed concern that the state-owned energy company did not attend to them despite having paid for petrol about two months ago.
This, they said, made them resort to patronising private depots who sell to them at higher rates.
When contacted by the NNPC confirmed the shutdown of its petrol purchasing portal and gave its reasons.
According to its spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, the company shut the portal due to a significant backlog.
Soneye explained that the shutdown became necessary to stop the NNPC from holding marketers’ capital for too long.
“We have a significant backlog to address. The closure is intended to prevent us from holding marketers’ funds for an extended period,” Soneye explained.
He assured the marketers that the portal would be reopened after the backlog had been reduced.
“It will be reopened once the backlog has been sufficiently reduced. We are working to address it as soon as possible,” Soneye said.
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