Fuel liberalisation opens new frontiers

Source: Fuel liberalisation opens new frontiers | The Herald March 14, 2019

Mr Jani

Ishemunyoro Chingwere  Business Reporter
Government’s decision to liberalise the importation of fuel has opened a new frontier for a leading fuel solutions company, Garage and Forecourt (Pvt) Ltd, which is now working on the new importers’ fuel management systems.

Cabinet, early this month, liberalised the importation of fuel to ease stock-outs that were affecting industry operations by allowing big corporates — particularly those in mining, agriculture and manufacturing sectors to use their free funds to import fuel for own use.

The move has presented a new frontier for Garage and Forecourt, which also specialises in services like calibration of fuel storage vessels, supply and installation of fuel station pumps, fuel vessels calibration among other related services with an opportunity to expand its operations.

In an interview yesterday, the firm’s managing director Mr Omalli Jani, said the new regulations meant that firms that had stopped utilising their storage vessels after the promulgation of SI 122 of 2017, which stipulated that only companies licensed in terms of Section 29 of the Petroleum Act were allowed to import fuel, have now reverted to their vessels.

“The new regulations by Government has seen us getting a spike in demand for our IT based management system as companies obviously want to have modern control of their product,” said Mr Jani.

“What we are doing for most of them is attendant tagging that monitor sales done by attendant regardless of the pump used and has automatic tank gauging that monitors product level in the tank and replaces the convectional dipsticks used to measure product levels in your yesteryear service station.

“The system also gives alarm signal if the product is contaminated and it also has a central office reporting mechanism that enables it to send stock-withdrawals for accounting purposes,” he added.

Mr Jani said his company continues to invest locally as it has confidence in the business environment that Government is creating.

He noted that now is the best time to set a foothold on the local market as an economic boom is widely expected on the back of the “Zimbabwe is Open for Business” mantra enunciated by President Mnangagwa as a key anchor for Vision 2030 by which Zimbabwe should be an upper middle income earning country.

Through the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP), Government has already underlined the importance of private sector led investment as key to the realisation of Vision 2030.