The president of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chinedu Okoronkwo, has stated that the group has no intentions to raise fuel pump prices in the country.
According to Arise News, he claimed during an interview that because IPMAN has not yet begun importing petroleum into the country, there is no chance that pump prices will go up.
“These speculators make us upset because by the time you speculate, people have already started to change prices. Just like any other product, this PMS is becoming intolerably noisy.”
“I want to be clear that we are not attempting to raise pricing in any way. We still primarily get our goods from NNPCL, who we hold in high regard and who has made it plain that they do not have any plans to raise pricing.”
During the interview, Okoronkwo also responded to inquiries on the NNPCL’s level of candour towards Nigerians regarding the fact that the price of oil is rising and the country is experiencing a forex crisis, but the NNPCL maintains that there are no plans to hike fuel prices.
“NNPCL controls every link in the petroleum industry’s value chain. They can also take action internally to see how they can stabilize this problem, and I believe that is what they are doing right now,” he said.
“I’m not saying we don’t want to import, but as I said, we haven’t started yet, and we’re making preparations. In addition to the parallel market, there is still an I&E window where NNPCL and some importers can obtain currency,” he concluded.
