Martin Onovo, a petroleum engineer and former presidential candidate of the defunct National Conscience Party (NCP), has proposed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu seek additional loans to resolve the ongoing fuel scarcity.
Onovo made this suggestion during an interview on Channels Television, following NNPCL’s admission of facing financial strain due to the costs of fuel supply. This admission, made by NNPCL spokesperson Olufemi Soneye, came after the company had previously denied owing $6.8 billion to international oil suppliers.
Onovo criticized NNPCL’s financial management, describing it as incompetent, and suggested that if petroleum vessels are already close to or within Nigerian waters, the government should consider taking out further loans to ease the financial burden and address the scarcity.
This suggestion follows reports that Nigeria, through NNPCL, secured a $925 million loan from the African Export-Import Bank in August 2023 as part of a $3.3 billion crude-oil-backed loan, with plans for another $2.2 billion loan in the pipeline.
