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FG to dedicate Kaduna, PH refineries to aviation fuel
*Shops for N72b for ex-Airways workers
*Airlines, marketers to save N34b yearly
The problem associated with scarcity of aviation fuel would soon be a thing of the past when government finalises work on Kaduna and Port-Harcourt refineries that would be dedicated solely to the refining of aviation fuel.
Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika made the disclosure on the side-line of a stakeholders’ meeting at the weekend said for the operators to overcome scarcity, plans are in top gear to refine aviation kero locally which he said would bring down cost.
Sirika stated that the refining of the commodity in Nigeria would help to bring down the rising cost of aviation fuel.
The minister said with new investments in Kaduna refinery, they would get the refinery back on stream, so that the more they refine, the more the fuel would be available.
“The essence of refining it locally is not only to make it available, but to also make it cheaper because the element of importation would be removed, Sirika said.
Domestic airlines in Africa’s largest economy have grappled with shortages of Jet A1, as dollar supplies fall way short of demand.
Airlines in Nigeria have a daily demand of about two million litres of aviation fuel. Consequently, refining the fuel locally could equate to saving as much as $152.75 million (N34 billion), incurred on the back of importation.
Government has not made the importation of aviation fuel its focus and it has left it solely to marketers who are now having challenges with sourcing forex to meet the demand for the product. Many of the marketers are having challenges with foreign exchange.
Aviation fuel, which sold for N105 in March, now sells for N200 in Lagos and N240 outside Lagos while in Ghana, the same product sells between N130 and N150.
Because of this huge price difference, as well as the scarcity in Nigeria, there is the fear that airlines may take advantage of that to buy their commodity in Accra. Nigeria imports Jet A1.
But, given the collapse in the value of the naira in recent months and given the scarcity of foreign currency, importers have struggled to source enough products to meet local demand.
An oil marketer who spoke on condition of anonymity told New Telegraph that, said marketers are finding it difficult to source for forex at the stipulated current rate of N306 to a dollar.
Meanwhile, the Minister assured workers of defunct Nigeria Airways that government has concluded plans to pay them all their entitlements he put at N72 billion.
His words, “Nigeria Airways is a sad story indeed. However, we are looking for ways to pay off the outstanding liabilities. We will consider using budgetary provision and we are talking to Government on other options. This Government will ensure all outstanding liabilities are paid off and we allow Nigeria Airway lay in peace. Government is committed to pay the ex-workers.”
About 700 ex-workers of the liquidated Nigeria Airways have so far died in the past ten years since the liwuidation of the carrier about 14 years ago.
Over 2000 ex-workers of the airline were thrown into the unemployment market following the liquidation of the national carrier by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration requiring about N72 billion to offset the bill.
The workers had at different times asked the Federal Government to pay them after the liquidation of the airline but the government of Obasanjo refused to pay them while the Late President Musa Yar’ Adua’s administration paid them five years.
Based on the death and inability of the workers to meet up with their daily obligations, the former workers decided to embark on weekly prayers as according to them, their obligations had defiled human solution.
An aircraft engineer with the defunct carrier, Ayuba Kyari recently said their demands were beyond human solutions, adding that they have decided to ask for God’s grace upon them.
Kyari said about N70 billion was needed to settle all the workers of the extinct airline for the period of their 20 years pay off.
He explained that since the liquidation of the airline on May 21, 2003, the Federal Government had only paid the retirees five years pension arrears out of 25 years pension arrears. He urged the government to pay the retired workers the outstanding pension arrears.
It was learnt that the airline employees who served in New York, Rome, London and other West African countries had been paid 25 years pension arrears.
Kyari explained that they were worried over the high rate of death among their colleagues, explaining that 700 people as at January 2016 had died while between June and early August, five people have been dying weekly.
