Africa-Press – Namibia. NORTHERN filling station owners are facing a downhill battle not only with regards to the small profit margin that they make per litre despite high fuel prices at the pumps, but their biggest problem is the so-called “Ngungula market”, the illicit sale of fuel that is smuggled into Namibia from neighbouring Angola.
The police and other stakeholders have their hands full trying to stop the smugglers at the border and to dismantle their clandestine networks in northern towns and villages.
Many smugglers have been arrested and their fuel confiscated, but the illicit trade continues unabated.
Those in the fuel industry say that there is evidence suggesting that an increased number of vehicle owners in the Ohangwena, Omusati, Oshana and Oshikoto regions are avoiding the filling stations, preferring “Ngungula” where petrol costs N$16 per litre compared to the pump price of N$23.87 per litre.
Pump prices in Angola have for quite some time remained static at the equivalent of less than N$5 per litre.
“Standing here you see vehicles driving up and down. However, the number of vehicles that stop at the pumps to refuel is, sometimes, negligible,” said Maria Amadhila at the Puma filling station at Oshakati’s Game Complex.
“Business is going down not only because of the illegal importation of the Angolan fuel. It is also going down because of the pump prices. Some people can no longer afford fuel and have either parked their cars or are using fuel sparingly,” said an administrative assistant at the Oneshila service station who preferred to be identified only as Julia.
She noted that filling stations do not only face the unfair and illegal competition from Ngungula, but the high number of filling stations is equally problematic.
“There are too many service stations for such a small market,” she said.
There are currently about eleven filling stations in Oshakati alone.
Already in June last year, a spokesperson for a group of filling station owners, Josua ‘Ketu’ Mwetupunga, demanded government intervention to salvage what he described as an “endangered industry”.
When vehicle owners’ resort to the black market to refuel their cars, it is not only the filling station owners who lose out.
The State and the MVA Fund lose income and petrol attendants risk losing their jobs.
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