Government moves to end fuel crisis
Malawi Government has moved to aggressively tackle the fuel crisis that is stalling economic activity, unlocking 30 million litres and closing on new deals for more, it has emerged.
In an interview yesterday, National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma) spokesperson Rex Chikoko said government is finalising processes towards accessing new fuel financing facilities as part of resolving the current fuel crisis.
He said these facilities include the $50 million line of credit Treasury secured from the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (Badea) in September.
Said Chikoko: “Nocma has unlocked a total of approximately 30 million litres combined volumes from various ports of Nacala, Beira and Dar es Salaam [in Tanzania].
“As of today [yesterday], 180 trucks are in transit from various ports and 200 trucks are being loaded from various ports.”
He said Nocma has on daily basis been distributing roughly 1.2 million litres to fuel service stations and and 300 000 litres of diesel towards the manufacturing industry.
Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) estimates show that in a day, Malawians use 845 000 litres of petrol and 834 000 litres of diesel.
Chikoko yesterday said presently, the country’s fuel strategic reserves are operating on a 24-hour shift for efficient receipt and distribution of the commodity.
In that regard, he said fuel deliveries to service stations are being made twice a day.
Nocma procures 50 percent of the country’s fuel volumes complemented by Petroleum Importers Limited (PIL), a consortium of private oil marketing companies that hauls in the other half.
On how many litres of fuel the private sector consortium is supplied in a day and what efforts it is undertaking to help normalise the situation, PIL general manager Martin Msimuko yesterday said he was on leave and would be in office next week Monday, as such, could not comment.
Malawians have for close to three months now been facing fuel shortages that have been attributed to forex shortages.
The situation has worsened this month of November as motorists are spending up to 10 hours at service stations waiting for the commodity to arrive.
The situation has given chance to black market dealers to exploit motorists by selling fuel between K3 500 and K5 000 per litre. The official pump price for petrol is K1 746 per litre while diesel is at K1 920 per litre.
Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) executive
director John Kapito said in an interview yesterday that consumers are going through one of their worst nightmares due to the fuel scarcity.
The fuel shortages have also led to increase in price of goods and services, including public transport, which continues to adversely affect Malawians livelihoods.
Currently, the country’s demand for fuel is 1.7 million litres per day from one million in 2015, according to Nocma
