We are all looking for clarity.Yes. There is a need for clarity. Although we already know that the NMDPRA wants us to import. But the big elephant in the room is that forex needs to be dealt with. If you want to bring it in 15 metric tonnes, you need more than $12m, but forex has not been available. I have been trying to buy just about $3m-$4m for base oil that we are bringing in, and it is taking us forever. Not to talk of importing PMS.
They said we consume 60 million litres daily, but it has dropped by 50 per cent from the north, and 30 per cent from the south. With that drop, it means you would need less forex to do business, because some of those products were being subsidised for people outside the country. With time, it would relax.
There is an argument that until the price of petrol in Nigeria gets to the prices it is being sold in other African neigbouring countries that smuggling across the border will continue. What do you think about this? We have to build the infrastructure and labour that will make us be able to benefit from these opportunities. It is some of our laxity as a country that has made us not being able to benefit from the current windfall occasioned by the current Ukraine/Russian war.