Long walk to fuel normalcy
Malawians have now t r a n s i t i o n e d i n t o the second month of experiencing erratic fuel supply which continues to affect motorists and others that rely on the commodity.
While at times the situation has been mild with either petrol or diesel being readily available, in some areas both commodities have been scarce, forcing motorists to source from black market dealers.
The black market dealers have since been selling the commodity between K3 500 and K5 000 per litre. The initial pump price for diesel is K1 920 per litre while petrol is K1 746 per litre.
When asked on efforts being put in place to normalise the situation Malawi Energy Regulatory Au t h o r i t y ( M e r a ) spokesperson Fi t ina Khonje asked for more time before responding.
B u t C o n s u m e r s Association of Malawi (Cama) executive director John Kapito said in an interview yesterday that the fuel scarcity is a crisis that needs to be addressed to avoid long-term implications that will emerge with it.
He said: “This is a serious economic and social issue affecting everyone in the country. Fuel plays a critical role in the development of this country and one would have expected the authorities to be honest throughout, but they started with lies.
“They [authorities] promised Malawians that fuel would be available as the scarcity was just a temporary disturbance. But now it’s two months with fuel service stations running dry and it seems at the top no one knows what’s happening.”
K a p i t o s a i d t h e continuous fuel scarcity will in the long term be a burden to consumers as they will have to pay more for goods and services whose prices are likely to keep escalating owing to the scarcity of the commodity.
Last month, diesel was the scarcest commodity while petrol could be readily found in fuel service stations across the country. But as of last week, petrol has also become scarce, resulting in long queues in fuel service stations.
The situation is worse in central business districts (CBDs) where the long queues cause traffic jams. Traffic police officers are forced to intervene in controlling traffic in such situations.
In Mzuzu, motorists are being forced to buy fuel on the black market to avoid the long queues.
The continued fuel shortages come despite the National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma) on September 22 2022 giving an update that they were working tirelessly to normalise the situation.
Nocma deputy chief executive officer Helen Buluma was yet to respond to our questionnaire when asked about the status of the fuel supply.
The Malawi Government announced last month that it has secured a $50 million line of credit from Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (Badea) for fuel imports.
Minister of Finance Sosten Gwengwe said the facility will help Nocma to solve the current fuel shortages.
But Buluma told The Nation edition of September 23 2022 that once all relevant paperwork is finalised, the first tranche of the $50 million will go towards immediate procurement of fuel products towards replenishment of the strategic fuel reserves stocks.
According to the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority on average, Malawians use 845 000 litres of petrol and 834 000 litres of diesel in a day.
In a month, about $50 million is needed to buy the fuel.
