The prolonged post-election scarcity of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in Abuja is due to panic buying, according to the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN).
Speaking with The Nation on phone at the weekend, its Executive Secretary, Mr. Clement Isong, said although the supply to the Federal Capital City (FCT) has increased, customers have increased their daily demand from the normal average demand of N1,800 to an average of N8,000 per customers.
This, according to him, has sustained the fuel scarcity that hit the city after the election.
There have been queues around the retails outlets in the city three days after the February 25 elections.
While some of the fuel stations have no products, the few ones opened to customers, record queues round the clock.
His words: “The product is coming but as soon as it comes, it finishes because customers empty their tanks.
” Product is coming. We have a lot of trucks coming to Abuja.
Panic buying is the major cause of the scarcity right now.
“What started it is that trucks were not moving because of elections. But what is sustaining it right now is the panic buying because we have more trucks carrying products to Abuja than normal.”
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Isong who admitted that the e-payment has further compounded the situation empathized with them while seeking understanding for insistence on successful e-payment before dispensing fuel.
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He attributed the insistence on payment before service to trust deficit.
According to him, some of the customers are not known to the retail outlets yet they are on transit and may not return to pay after a failed electronic transaction.
Analysing the situation, he said: “What happens too often is that you get to the pump you have to pay with your ATM card and you cannot pay.
“So many filling stations were losing money because people will get there you will fill their tanks they try to pay with the Point Of Sale (POS) and it doesn’t go through. So what do you want the dealer to do?
“So the dealer said pay me first so that you don’t just fill your tank and when it is time to pay you are unable to pay.”
Wondering about some customers attitude, he said “80% of the people will never go come back to pay after buying the fuel with a failed transaction. Is that fair?
Commercial people are not stupid, he said stressing it is not the dealers fault to delay customers to transfer their money successfully before supply of the product.
According to him, the dealer must recover his working capital to be able to purchase another stock or even repay its own creditor.
The Executive Secretary said the issue was that Nigeria was not prepared for the pressure on the POS and transfer applications before adopting the cashless policy.
Isong said: “So you should pay first when they receive the money if people were collecting the product and the card does not work it is not their fault.
“It is their fault that we were not ready as a country for the increased pressure on POS or on the application of the POS. Very often when you try the POS it doesn’t work, it doesn’t allow the dealer to collect the money, how will he pay for the next product ?
“The money you pay at the filling station is not the dealer’s money. You have to pay for the product so if he doesn’t gather the money to replenish his stock then he losses money: what he borrows from the bank, he has to pay who gave him the product on credit.
” If not the station will run dry. So the dealer’s have to make sure they collect the money: the working capital so they can pay for the product.”
Isong noted that the turnover was faster when customers were paying cash than now that they paying mostly through electronic transfer.
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