Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed
Speaking at the inauguration of the Advertisers Association of
Nigeria (ADVAN) marketers’ conference in Lagos on Friday, the minister
of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, disclosed that the
introduction of a new price regime for premium motor spirit (petrol)
will create 200,000 jobs and prevent the loss of 400,000 more jobs.
The outspoken minister who said that the new price regime was to
halt the crippling fuel scarcity in the country and to ensure the
availability of the product, explained that only the liberalisation of
petrol supply would ensure the availability of the product.
"It (new petrol price regime) would end the recurrent fuel
scarcity by ensuring product availability across the country, reduce
hoarding, smuggling and diversion of products substantially, improves
fuel supply situation through private sector participation, creates
labour market stability, as this will potentially create additional
200,000 jobs through new investments in refineries and retails and
prevents potential loss of 400,000 jobs in existing investments," he said in a statement issued by Segun Adeyemi, his media aide.
The influential APC chieftain said the crash in the price of crude
oil, which has impacted negatively on foreign exchange earnings, had
further compounded the crisis in fuel supply.
"With the drastic fall in the price of crude oil, which is the
nation’s main foreign exchange earner, there has also been a drastic
reduction in the amount of foreign exchange available. The
unavailability of forex and the inability to open letters of credit have
forced marketers to stop product importation and imposed over 90
percent supply on the NNPC since October 2015, in contrast to the past
where NNPC supplies 48 percent of the national requirement," he said.
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