Foreign currency shortages bite as fuel companies struggle to import products

The specter of fuel shortages that affected the country a decade ago has come back to haunt motorists as a number of fuel stations are receiving erratic supplies of petrol and diesel as importers struggle to get foreign currency to import the fuels.

Although no long queues have formed as yet as there are always other filling stations with fuel, motorist have become jittery every time they are turned away because there are no products available.

However, the government has allayed fears of outright shortages, with Secretary for Energy and Power Development Patson Mbiriri telling the state controlled Herald newspaper that it is mobilizing resources to enable the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to pay for the imports.

Word of the pending shortages started going round in mid-September with social media awash with warnings to those dealing with bulk fuels to stock up before another crisis emerged.

Mbiriri acknowledged the shortage of money to buy the fuel saying that the oil firms were failing to access adequate export earnings to pay for imports.

"What is happening is that when oil companies approach their banks requesting them to make payments for the importation of fuel, there have been some financial bottlenecks in seeking clearance from the central bank.

"They have been told that there is no foreign currency. There have been challenges related to foreign currency, making it difficult to make payments of fuel imports through their nostro accounts," Mbiriri said. Endit