Erasmus Shalihaxwe
The Ministry of Mines and Energy lifted the moratorium placed on the issuing of wholesale petroleum licenses on Wednesday.
The moratorium that has been in place since 15 August 2022 will be lifted today.
The Ministry instituted the moratorium to enhance its licensing systems and processes for better public service.
The moratorium on issuing new retail licenses will, however, remain in place.
“This is because there is evidence that the average demand for fuel has not increased, suggesting that issuing new retail licenses will negatively affect the viability of existing retail outlets. The Ministry will continue to assess the fuel retail market with a view to reviewing the moratorium on retail,” said the ministry.
In May of this year, the Minister of Mines and Energy, Tom Alweendo, during a response to questions in the National Assembly, stated that over the years, the ministry has issued a significant number of retail licenses.
As a result, existing retail businesses began to complain that the ministry was issuing too many licenses, negatively impacting their businesses and causing the volume of demand in the country to remain almost unchanged.
“The moratorium is not applicable throughout the country, as the ministry makes exceptions for far-reaching rural areas. However, towns are not issuing new retail fuel licenses, according to Alweendo at the time.
According to Alweendo, the ministry has issued 87 new retail licences since 2018, bringing the total number of active licences nationwide to more than 500.
At the same time, the minister said the annual total fuel consumption for petrol was 429 million litres and diesel was 727 million litres.
The total fuel consumption for petrol was 338 million litres during the previous year, and for diesel, it was 755 million litres.
“From these numbers, the average volume per month per retail outlet is 56 000 litres of petrol and 121 000 litres of diesel,” informed Alweendo.
