The government also took action to prevent ship owners from pulling their boats out of service due to exorbitant back fees.
Six new companies have been given permission to import petroleum products into Nigeria, the Federal Government announced on Monday.
This remark was given to state reporters at the Presidential Villa by Farouk Ahmed, the managing director of the Nigeria Mainstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDRA).
Apart from the six that were granted, according to Farouk, numerous enterprises requested permission to import petroleum in due course.
Additionally, Ahmed refuted claims that the Dangote Group had received permission to import petroleum from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), claiming that the organization lacked the authority to do so.
The managing director added that a number of businesses had requested permits to import fuel and that anyone might request a licence to import to have access to the port because the authority is available to everyone with an interest in importing.
Six businesses have indicated a want to import fuel in July, according to Ahmed. Obviously, everyone else is free to import in November, December, or at any time, but as of this morning, there were only six people who had expressed interest in bringing fuel in during the month of July.
The fact that there are interests is what makes it so beautiful because it allows them to access foreign currency to import.
“Now, as we go along, of course, we’ll be briefing you on the progress or the achievements so far, but the important thing is that NNPC has 30 days of fuel sufficiency, so we do not anticipate any gap in supply or in distribution.”
As a result of what they perceive to be high back charges, President Bola Tinubu has taken action to prevent ship owners from withdrawing their vessels.
The Special Adviser to the President on Revenue, Zacchaeus Adedeji, warned that Nigeria cannot afford to have vessels travel in and out of the nation. Adedeji was in charge of a government interactive session with maritime stakeholders at the State House.
After receiving a slew of multimillion-dollar tax invoices trying to recoup unpaid fees from 2010 to 2019, reports revealed that at least two ship owners were keeping their vessels out of Nigeria.
Adedeji allayed concerns in the oil and gas industry by outlining the agreement made to prevent vessel withdrawal in order to maintain the flow of goods when briefing State House reporters following a meeting with stakeholders today.
A technical group has been formed to address the contentious issues, the presidential aide assured.
He said that while the committee worked to resolve the overdue taxes, no vessel would be detained or jailed.
