The Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) management board says it has started the electronic loading of trucks in the petroleum downstream sector.
Mr Goddy Nnadi, General Manager, Corporate Services, PEF, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday.
He said that the scheme tagged: “Project Aquila’’, was designed to ensure the effective loading and delivery of petroleum products across the nation. He added that it also allowed for the electronic payment of claims to the marketers which was hitherto done manually.
Nnadi said that following the December 2012 deadline set by the board for all marketers to key into the scheme, it had stopped the processing of claims manually. “It will now be very difficult for any marketer to get paid for the bridging claim if not registered with Project Aquila,’’ he said.
He, however, said that PEF would continue to process the backlog of manual claims for last year and expressed optimism that they would be cleared by March. He said that so far, over 22,000 trucks had been tagged across the major depots, adding that the board would continue with the tagging process, especially for marketers with new trucks.
Nnadi said that the management of the board, led by the Executive Secretary, Mrs Adefunke Kasali, was on tour of the South West zone to monitor the compliance level across the depots. He pointed out that the sanction for marketers who failed to register their trucks under the scheme was that their bridging claims would not be reimbursed.
He stressed that so far, the scheme had helped a lot in monitoring and confirming the loading and delivery of petroleum products at depots with improved claims processing, among others. He appealed to all marketers to key into the scheme in their own interest, stressing that tagging and registration were free of charge as long as the trucks had all the necessary documents.