NIGERIAN GOVT TO MEET UNIONS OVER PETROL STRIKE THREAT

This file photo taken on December 1, 2015 shows people queueing to buy fuel with jerry cans at a filling station in Lagos. Nigeria’s financial capital Lagos is running on fumes again. PHOTO|FILE 

Abuja. Nigeria’s government was on Monday seeking to reach an agreement with union leaders to prevent a national strike over petrol price rises, as economic pressures mount and concerns grow over falling oil production.
Labour ministry officials were to meet with representatives of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to discuss the 67 percent hike imposed last week.
Both unions have called for an indefinite strike from Wednesday unless prices are slashed from 145 naira to 86.50 naira per litre. Government offices, airports, sea ports and businesses, including banks, shops and markets, would be shut if talks failed, the unions warned, calling on people to stockpile food.
Any industrial action would exacerbate pressures in Africa’s largest economy caused by the global slump in crude prices, which has drastically cut government revenue from oil exports.
On Monday, Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics said the inflation rate had risen for the sixth consecutive month to 13.7 percent in April, up from 12.8 percent in March.
Nigeria depends on oil sales for 70 percent of government revenue and the global plunge in oil prices has weakened the naira currency and made foreign exchange scarce.
To make matters worse, junior oil minister Emmanuel Kachikwu said domestic production had fallen from 2.2 million barrels per day because of renewed militant attacks on pipelines and facilities.
“We are basically producing about 1.4 million barrels (per day),” he told parliament in a presentation to explain the petrol price rises.
Kachikwu, who also heads Nigeria’s state-run oil firm, last week announced the petrol price rise and deregulated the fuel import market to try to end shortages caused by the lack of forex. Black market exchange rates are running at about 350 naira to the US dollar but the government has refused to change the official rate of 197-199. As a result, fuel importers have been unable to source forex at the official market rate to buy supplies, causing pumps to run dry and long queues at filling stations.
Wranglings over subsidy payments between importers and the government have previously led suppliers to withhold deliveries in a system widely criticised as open to abuse. 
(AFP)