The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Western Zone, has been tinkering with the idea of building, buying or taking over petroleum products depots to enhance its position in the zone.
Some of its members, who spoke at a one-day seminar tagged `IPMAN past, present and future’ , organised for all elected officers of IPMAN depots and zones recently in Ibadan, said there was the need for the association to re-strategise its investment plan.
The past IPMAN Chairman, Satellite Depot, Ejigbo , Lagos, Mr. Mark Obu, urged executive members to look beyond its present investment and think of how to empower the members rather than seeking only self interest and personal gains.
“It is better late than never but we can still embark on building or buying or taking over a depot that can be controlled by IPMAN that will be purely owned by us”, he said.
The past chairman explained that importation of petrol and kerosene should not be a challenge to IPMAN members if the association had a committed leadership at the zonal level that could muster at least 200 members who would be committed to pay a deposit of N1m each to fast-track importation of kerosene and petrol for the benefit of the members.
“On arrival of the product, those members would then be made to pay the balance and given priority in loading,” he added
If non marketers have benefitted so much in petroleum product importation, why not IPMAN as a body, Obu argued.
He advised Western Zone IPMA leadership to look into buying existing depots that solely dependent on NNPC product allocation that is currently not coming.
He said, “IPMAN can negotiate with any of them, and agree to buy 60 or 100 per cent, while the executive should work out the funding and involved members.
“IPMAN can still strengthen the co-operative societies in the depots and plough back some of the money made in the product allocation in the depot into co-operative societies to make fund available to members to buy products at reasonable interest rate.
“We should also be able to buy off stations of me zmbers who have issues with banks, while we turn around the stations, manage it in form of leasing and meeting the demand of such members after settling the banks and making reasonable profit for IPMAN,’’ he advised.
“Today, ex depot price for PMS (petrol) is N 87.66 per litre while at the private depots it is going for as high as N 94 per litre, how then can IPMAN members survive,” he asked.
Speaking in the same vein, Mr. Dele Akinmusuti, a lawyer, tasked IPMAN members with ensuring discipline in all their business endeavours, adding that discipline was the bedrock of progress, without which no association could be useful to its members.
However, the IPMAN western zone Chairman, Mr. Olumide Ogunmade, in his welcome address said the objective of the seminar was to keep all the elected officers abreast of the new trend in the industry, adding that it required a constant and regular knowledge upgrade.