Government meets major actors in Kpayo’s business

FINANCE MINISTER, SOULE MANA LAWANI MEETS THIS WEDNESDAY; SOME MAJOR ACTORS INVOLVED IN OIL SMUGGLING. THE GOVERNMENT CONTINUES TO ACTIVELY EXPLORE WAYS AND MEANS TO CURB THIS BUSINESS, WHICH IS DIFFICULT TO COMBAT.

Faced with the recklessness of traffickers and other actors involved in illegal oil trade in the country, the Government has not given up. The Government has been using repression to track them down as well as continuously pursuing his policy of dialogue, given that for many years, successive regimes have left the business to grow, prosper so it has become a scourge, a genuine social phenomenon. In some border areas of Benin, the trafficking of this prohibited product is the main business. It took almost the place of agriculture and other trades. The survival of many families depends ultimately on it. Powerful lobbies have even been set up to defend the business in such a way that the Government is obliged to negotiate. It is even said that, at unsuspected levels in the State apparatus, illegal trafficking of the oil known as Kpayo, smuggled product, enjoys support.

In these circumstances, the negotiation is the only choice available for the Government that has already created an institutional framework to enable traders who are involved in this illegal business to start operating in the formal sector. Moreover, in this context, facilities are put forward to these illegal traffickers to install small filling stations. However, this approach that deserves to be praised does not seem to be really working. The few filling stations created are installed in major cities including Cotonou. Much of the country is not supplied by either the large filling stations or by small ones. The populations of areas which are not supplied by the formal sector have Kpayo as the sole source of supply. Finance Minister meets some key actors in the informal sector, who are still hesitant, presumably to explore other avenues and opportunities that may help get them out of this very dangerous business for themselves and for society as a whole.

Apollinaire KOUTON
Translated by Alfred Cossi CHODATON