Nigeria's Fuel Shortage
Nigeria has been having severe fuel shortage for the past few months and it has become a bigger issue this month. This shortage is affecting their daily lives, and their jobs, due to the government putting an hold on the payments for the petrol, even though Nigeria is known as Africa's main oil importer, but they don't handle the process of turning it into petrol.
The root of this issue:
According to aljazeera.com they stated how "The crisis started weeks before the March 29 elections, with oil suppliers were hit by tightened credit lines and halved international oil prices, a slump in the naira currency, and unpaid government debts the suppliers claim amount to nearly $1bn."
In May 2015, a new president came into power in Nigeria known as Muhammadu Buhari. Ever since he came into power the severe fuel shortage went even more downhill. Previous governments used to pay the wholesale fuel sellers without parliamentary approval. Whereas with President Buhari, he wanted to do things the right way.
According to BBC News.com, they stated how "…President Buhari is trying to stick to the law by refusing to release such a large sum of money without parliamentary scrutiny."
This fuel that has been put on hold, is imported at a subsidised price under a scheme operated by the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC). Just earlier this month, the government approved the payment of $2.1bn(e1.4bn) to the importers, or wholesale fuel sellers, to settle the subsidy claims, Yet this payment has been delayed because parliament has not approved it.
Today:
Many petrol stations have closed due to the shortage of petrol and they don't know when the payments will be approved. People are now being forced to buy fuel in the black market because the government won't pay the oil suppliers to manufacture the oil, so they can turn it into petrol and therefore it could be distributed back to Nigeria, from where they manufacture it.
Also their is long lines of cars waiting at petrol stations from sunrise to sunset. Their are cases where people are staying there overnight, so they can have a better chance at being the first to receive petrol if they receive some.
Their are also some places within Nigeria, where some petrol stations are giving out petroleum to people who they have connections with, which isn't okay. Hopefully this issue gets resolved soon, so Nigerians can get back to their normal routine's and go back to work.
1st article link:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34844617
2nd article link:http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/05/nigeria-increasingly-crippled-fuel-shortage-worsens-150525101247517.html
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