In a bid to appease airline operators after plans to ground operations, the House of Representatives has informed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to supply six million litres of aviation fuel to airline operators’ marketers.
This decision was contained in a statement released after the roundtable discussion held between the members of the lower chamber, Airline Operators of Nigeria, Group Managing Director, NNPC, and Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday, the media reported.
The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) had announced plans to ground business operations over the persistent increase in aviation fuel, known as Jet A1, to N700/litre.
At the meeting, Mele Kyari, GMD, NNPC, attributed the over 300% jump in the price of aviation fuel to the deregulation of the product.
Governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele, while speaking said the apex bank does not influence how the dollar flows.
His words: “We do not have FX to sell. It would be difficult for us to grant any concession. It means we would be taking a hit or we would be providing some sort of subsidy for the industry.”
“We are at the precipice today in Nigeria. There is a crisis at hand. The shutdown of airline operations has the potential of shutting down this government. We cannot sit here as stakeholders and fold our arms and watch this happen,” said the speaker of the house of reps, Femi Gbajabiamila,
“I hope that the outcome of this meeting will usher in a lasting solution to these challenges of Jet A1 bearing in mind that there is a laissez-faire economy of demand and supply,” he submitted.
Meanwhile, on Monday the Academic Staff Union of Universities entered another phase of its strike action for another 12 weeks.
After putting work on hold for over two months the union has threatened that “No work, no pay policy can’t break us,” it stated.