Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and airline operators have agreed to provide six million litres of aviation fuel at N480 per litre for three months.
Gatekeepers News reports that this was part of the agreements reached at the end of the meeting the House of Representatives summoned on Monday to avert the planned shutdown by airline operators’.
On Friday, the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) announced plans to shut down operations from Monday over the high cost of Jet-A1 (aviation fuel), complaining about the all-time high cost of N700 per litre.
The Speaker of the house, Femi Gbajabiamila announced the resolutions after the end of the meeting which lasted for about four hours.
Gbajabiamila said the CBN has agreed to provide the aviation fuel at N480 — in what seems like a forex subsidy — pending when the carriers would be granted a licence to import the commodity.
He said, “In the long term, you commence the process of applying for your own licence to be able to import your own jet fuel. So that it will remove, whether it is middlemen or frontmen or whatever. You will know the landing cost to assist you in your business.
“There is the benevolence of the CBN governor that six million litres available now at N480. You will get an allocation in the next three months through the companies (marketers) that you have nominated so that you would not come back and say jet fuel is now a certain amount and it is the fault of the NNPC. You have nominated those people that are selling to you.”
Gatekeepers News earlier reported that as a long-term solution, Gbajabiamila advised the airline operators to commence the process of securing a license for the importation of aviation fuel to avoid suspicion over the landing cost of the product and other associated logistic issues.
On his part, Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said the apex bank has no control over the flow of the dollar.
“We do not have FX to sell. It would be difficult for us to grant any concession. It means we would be taking a hit or we would be providing some sort of subsidy for the industry,” Emefiele said.
