On Monday, the house of representatives secured the cooperation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), to make provision of Six million. litres of JetA1 (aviation fuel) to aviation marketers selected by the the Airlines Operators of Nigeria (AON).

The deal struck at a meeting with AON representatives at the National Assembly.

AON had threatened to shutdown local airlines services on Monday but reverse the threat on Sunday after being pressurized by the Federal Government.

The airline operators say the increasing rate of key inputs such as aviation fuel necessitated the intended shutdown.

Among the resolutions agreed upon at Monday’s meeting, which lasted for over three hours, is providing a long term solution, which the airline operators must commence, as soon as possible, the process of securing a license for the importation of aviation fuel to avoid suspicion over the landing cost of the product and other associated logistic issues.

The meeting took off on a rough note when Speaker Gbajabiamila asked the representative of the CBN governor to excuse himself from the meeting, emphasizing that the importance and sensitivity of the meeting required the presence of the CBN governor Godwin Emefiele.

The CBN governor, who walked into the meeting about 15 minutes later, gave reasons why he had to be represented before his eventual arrival.

In his remark, “Speaker Gbajabiamila emphasis why the Cbn governor presence is of important because his role is essential to the resolution of this issue”

The speaker recalled certain resolutions that included the sale of aviation fuel at N500 per litre and the permission of aviation fuel import license to the operators was reached during the last meeting while also requesting an update on the implementation of the resolution.

Also, the leadership suggested that functional refineries should be able to solve some of the challenges being faced while asking for the status of the refineries undergoing renovations

Responding to that, NNPC GMD, Mele Kyari said that “appropriate allocations to the three marketers chosen by the operators and the other will be made available,”

Stakeholders present at the meeting involved the representatives of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Ministry of Aviation, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), NNPC, Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Nigerian Airspace Management Authority (NAMA), among others. CONTINUE READING…