N250bn Debt: Northern Petroleum Marketers To Shutdown Operations

The Chairman of the Northern Independent Petroleum Marketers Forum (NIPMF),Musa Yahya Maikifi, has revealed that Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) owes NIPMF over N250billion in outstanding claims for the last year.

Maikifi said this during a meeting in Kano state on Thursday, July 27.

According to him, the failure to pay up will affect petroleum distribution in all the Northern states. He also stated that members of the forum can no longer afford to transport and supply petroleum products for sale at various outlets.

Mustapha further said that bridging claims are contributed by the consumers, which are collected by the marketers and paid to NNPCL. Meanwhile, NNPCL collects and pays into the collective fund of the Equalization Fund, Mustapha said.

“That money is not budgeted, which is financed by the government. It is financed by the consumers through the marketers, basically to equalize prices across the country.

“We will follow diplomatic means to access the fund, but we cannot guarantee that the diplomatic means will be sustainable. We don’t know how to control our members. It is incumbent on the government to look at the situation, consider our support for the deregulation policies, and do the needful.

“As businesspeople, we do not go on strike but if the situation persists, we will just withdraw our services, which we do not pray for such to happen.”

Source: Nairametrics