Saturday, March 30, 2013
Mogadishu motorists no longer need to rely solely on roadside vendors
selling dirty petrol in jerry cans to fill up their cars, trucks and
motorbikes.
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SOPICO, which opened March 7th, is the first petrol station with pumps to operate in Mogadishu in 22 years. [Abdi Moalim/Sabahi]
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For the first time in 22 years, motorists in the Somali capital can
fuel up at a newly refurbished petrol station equipped with pumps
dispensing high quality fuel.
The SOPICO station in Mogadishu's Hamarweyne neighbourhood opened on
March 7th. It is the first of eight petrol stations now slated for
revival. Pumps at these stations stopped working with the fall of the
central government in 1991.
A second station, the Benadir Petroleum Company, will open soon in Mogadishu's Abdiaziz District after undergoing testing.
"The last time I filled my vehicle at a petrol station in Mogadishu
was 22 years ago, before the collapse of the government," said Mohamed
Addow Qalinle, 55, who queued up at SOPICO to fill up his vehicle.
"Therefore, I am very happy today that I can access refined fuel."
Qalinle said the re-emergence of a functioning petrol station in
Mogadishu is a "treasured victory", while bus driver Nuur Alasow Oorfane
was so excited about the new petrol station that he likened it to being
"as happy as when I got my first child".
"This is because we have suffered too much from contact with
unrefined petrol," Oorfane told Sabahi, referring to the below-standard
and often contaminated petrol sold in jerry cans by roadside vendors. At
SOPICO, Oorfane pays $1.20 per litre -- the same price he used to pay
for jerry can petrol.
Engine breakdowns and other problems caused by poor-grade petrol has
been a long-time headache for Somali motorists like Dahir Warsame, who
said he wants to see the roadside petrol hawkers pack up shop for good.
"The vendors [by the streets] do not store the fuel in clean
containers while dust and other dirt find their way into the fuel," said
Warsame, a mechanic and dealer of imported vehicles. "This kind of fuel
destroys the vehicles' engines while unhealthy fumes are released into
the air."
"All this leads to waste of resources. Motorists also waste a lot of
time waiting for vendors to fill their vehicles with fuel using small
containers," he told Sabahi. "All these challenges are addressed by the
service stations retailing refined fuel."
Enterprising Somalis
For the new petrol stations, motorists can thank some enterprising
Somalis who are testing the local business climate and taking advantage
of improved security in Mogadishu and high demand for petrol.
Mohamed Omar, a trader who had lived in the Netherlands, has returned
home to Somalia, where he now works as the manager at SOPICO.
"[The petrol station] is still in its initial stages and many people
have yet to adapt to the availability of clean petrol," he said.
"Besides that, we have received a lot of acceptance and high demand, and
we strive to offer our customers petrol that meets internationally
acclaimed fuel standards. This is an option many motorists never had
before, and we offer other products and services that motorists may
need."
The Somali government is providing licenses to investors who want to
refurbish the petrol stations, which are located on state-owned land,
and charging rent for the use of the property.
"The government does not own any shares in the business, therefore,
this is a private enterprise," Omar said. "We also use privately owned
warehouses that we use independently to store the fuel we import." Peace
activist Halimo Ga'ayte, 35, said the resurgence of the city's petrol
stations shows how far security in Mogadishu has improved.
"In the old days, investors used to invest their resources in foreign
countries for fear of conflict [in Somalia], but if they trust their
home country now, then that is victory and progress," Ga'ayte told
Sabahi.
More petrol stations coming
To pump new life into the petrol stations' recovery, the Benadir
regional administration has granted licences to eight entrepreneurs,
administration spokesperson Mohamed Yusuf Osman told Sabahi.
In addition to the two petrol stations already in the city, Osman said six others "will be operational very soon".
"We do not charge the entrepreneurs any taxes at the moment as we
have prioritised the availability of fuel," he said. "For that reason,
we have permitted entrepreneurs to invest in the government-owned fuel
service outlets."
Deeqa Hassan, a mother of eight who sells fuel at the KM 5 junction,
said she was worried the new petrol stations will put her out of work
and is now searching for a new source of income.
"The service stations are going to push us out of business because
our customers will [eventually] shift to petrol stations retailing clean
fuel," she said, urging the government to help street vendors
transition to other business ventures.
Osman suggested that roadside fuel vendors pool their resources and obtain one of the licenses for opening a petrol station.