By Linda Kwanjana
The much-awaited fuel under government to government (G-2-G) arrangement has started arriving in the country with 100 tankers of the expected 1,409 tankers which are expected to be hauled from Tanga Port of Tanzania.
Minister of Energy, Ibrahim Matola witnessed the coming in of this first butch of the trucks today at Songwe Border in Karonga.
Fuel Queues which have haunted the country for the past three weeks are expected to come to an end following the arrival of these tankers of fuel which have carried 35,000 litres each bringing the total haulage to 3.5Million litres according to Matola.
Matola is optimistic that the fuel situation will stabilise soon, as over last,1, 000 trucks have been assigned to carry 51 litres of petrol and diesel to Malawi starting from Saturday.
Matola said the decision to use the Port of Tanga was necessitated by severe congestion at the Port of Dar es Salaam, which risked delaying deliveries. He noted that while Tanga is further from Malawi, it presents a viable alternative due to its smoother operations and the lack of congestion.
At the Port of Tanga, Malawi fuel is being handled by Gulf Bulk Petroleum or GBP which has a storage capacity of 210 million litres.
“We are here today at the Songwe border Malawian side to witness the tracks which have carried government to government fuel arrangement. But am happy to report that we have seen that some of the other tracks have already crossed and some are processing their exit papers,” he said.
While at the border, minister did not hide his excitement after noting that it is only taking 5 minutes to process paperwork for one tanker.
MRA has also increased human capacity to handle the flow of new consignment as they have created a special desk which is being manned by four personel.
Matola has since appealed to local transporters to bring forward their trucks and participate in the hauling of the G to G fuel.
“What it means that the Malawian trucks will leave Malawi empty, going into Tanzania and load. However, we don’t want to leave anybody behind the administration of His Excellency Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera would want this share of cake, be disputed equally. So the local transporters should participate. If they are not participating, then this is another issue which can be dealt with under the Transporters Association of Malawi (TAM).” He said.
Economic and social commentator Dr Ben Dzolowere has since commended Malawi Government diverting to G to G path saying that will have positive bearing at short, medium and long term.
