Petroleum product Marketers and Depot Owners Associations, gave the government, a seven day ultimatum last week, to redeem their long overdue balance for over N800bn for fuel, already sold at Government regulated price of N145/litre. The N800bn, was reportedly consolidated from the difference between government’s regulated price and the actual open market price of petrol sans subsidy; the marketers are also demanding compensation for exchange rate differentials and relief from the extended burden of interest on their bank loans. Instructively, the open market fuel price in ECOWAS neighbour Countries is, presently around $1/ litre, i.e. between N305 – N360; this is in place of the regulated price of N145/ litre in Nigeria. The much cheaper petrol price, has expectedly encouraged large scale cross border smuggling of Nigeria’s petrol imports to neighbor nations in the Republics of Benin, Togo, Cameroun, Niger and Chad, and these countries’ economies have, invariably, become […]