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Tuesday Feb 3 2012 |
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FG to Grant Licences for More Refineries » |
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President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed his administration’s resolve to grant licences to investors willing to build more refineries in the country.
He said the move was to shore up the refining capacity of Nigeria to satisfy local consumption and possibly export.
Jonathan spoke when investors from the Voight group in Brazil led by their Chairman, Reuben Voight, visited him in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Jonathan, who insisted it was unacceptable to depend on imported refined products for local needs, also promised to make the sector conducive for investors, especially as there were immeasurable gains and opportunities to be exploited in the sector which had remained largely underdeveloped.
He expressed regret that the refineries built by the country do not have the capacity to meet local consumption, added to the fact that they rarely produced at optimum capacity. “Nigeria has four refineries, but their combined capacity does not meet the country’s needs. So, we are willing to approve applications for refining licences,” he said.
To remove impediments to investors in the downstream sector, the president said areas hitherto exclusive to government had been opened up to private investors for competition and efficiency.
He directed the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to spearhead the discussion with the group so as to explore areas of mutual cooperation.
Others to work with her in determining areas of cooperation are Ministers of Housing, Ms. Ama Pepple; Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji; and Olajumoke Akinjide, Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Speaking earlier, Voight said his group was donating 120,000 housing units to Nigeria, which would be delivered over the next three years and listed areas of interest to them as “construction, housing, power plants, petroleum refining, and oil spillage clearing.”
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