Awka, Nigeria – The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), has said the association was ready to partner stakeholders in the Nigerian downstream sector to solve the problem with petroleum product pricing..
Mr Chinedu Anyaso, Chairman, of IPMAN, Enugu Depot in charge of Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu States, said this in his 2024 Independence message in Awka on Wednesday.
Anyaso said members would continue to serve the Nigerian public to the best of their abilities within the extant regulatory environment.
He noted that sourcing and pricing of products were determined by the NNPCL while calling on the Federal Government to allow independent marketers to source petroleum products to ease the pressure in the sector.
“As it is today, we are selling according to the price we are getting the products, there is not much we can do to influence the major variables of price and availability.
“IPMAN controls about 85 percent of retail outlets in the country, so we are in a position to play greater impacts in the reforms going on in the sector.
“If the sector is further liberalised to allow IPMAN participate as major stakeholders, products will definitely become more available and price will be cheaper,” he said.
Anyaso said the national leadership of IPMAN, under Alhaji Abubakar Maigandi, was already holding strategic talks with management of Dangote refinery with a view to securing direct supply from the company.
He said IPMAN, as a body, could source products directly from the company, noting that the move would reduce prices.
Anyaso said IPMAN had also visited the Port Harcourt refinery and could confirm that serious work was going on to bring the facility back to operation while expressing hope that lifting of product would commence there in no distant future.
He appealed to the general public to understand the role IPMAN, as downstream operators play in the ongoing challenge in the sector, adding that marketers were equally negatively affected in terms of reduced sales and profitability.
The IPMAN chairman congratulated Nigerians and urged them to have faith in the country as there would be light at the end of the tunnel.
