•Fed Govt plans to end fuel importation by
2019
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved new policies
for oil and labour sectors, Minister of State for Petroleum
Resources Dr. Ibe Kachikwu and Minister of Labour Chris Ngige said
yesterday.
Kachikwu and Ngige spoke to State House correspondents at the
end of the council meeting chaired by Acting President Yemi
Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
They were with Minister of Information Lai Mohammed and Minister
of State for Budget and National Planning Zainab Ahmed.
Kachikwu said the Federal Government was committed to ending
fuel importation into Nigeria by 2019.
On the plan to end it, he said: “In terms of specifics, what a
policy document does is that it gives you a general guideline in
terms of where you are headed. Then, you go into the specifics in
other separate documents for purpose of execution.
“If you take the 2019 timeframe for refinery for instance, it
won’t tell you what I’m doing today, but it will tell you that I
have set a timeline to exit importation and to get the refineries
working by 2019.
“But if you ask me specifically off the shelve what are we doing
on that? There is a steering committee already in place, which I
head. There is a technical committee team already set up headed by
chief operating officer in NNPC. We have had series of meetings
with individuals who are willing to put money into the
refineries.
“I need to state this clearly. This is not a sale and this is
not a concession. This is a financing scheme and there are over 30
people who have indicated interest in that financing.
“They are going to go through the usual due process mechanism to
see who qualifies for that financing. What we have resolved,
however, which we have at least have a landing is that each of the
refineries would be repaired by the individual company that built
the refinery.
“Who does the work is different from who finance the work to be
done. We are still dialoguing who is going to get the financing
opportunity, but who is going to get the contracting opportunity to
do the work is already decided. If you check the companies that
built, I think is Chioda in the North, Saitem in Warri, if I’m not
mistaken. I have forgotten the one in Port Harcourt. But, all of
them have reached agreement with us in terms of willingness and
readiness to do the work.
“Government is not putting money into this. lt is going to be
sector-led effort and they will recover their money through
incremental volumes that will arise from the production increase
arising from the repairs. We are doing about 30 per cent
performances on most refineries now. So, if you get them to above
90 per cent template, we are going to use some of the product line
to pay for some of the debts and free ourselves from the
importation problems.”
Noting that the refineries, when repaired cannot cover the
required consumption, the minister said some level of efficiency
and upgrade would increase their capacity.
He said: “We are banking on the fact that efficiency steps we
are taking will reduce the consumption. We have gone from the 50
million litres per day when I resumed office down to today that is
about 28 million litres per day.
“So, obviously, efficiency has wiped off smuggling, efficiency
has reduced consumption and also whatever gains we made under the
subsidy regime by taking the subsidy out has also taken out. So, if
we are reducing the level of consumption and increasing the
efficiency of the refineries, we are banking that we will be able
to exit importation completely.
“And this is not building in Dangote refinery that is 165,000
barrel cap on it, or the modular refineries we are looking at or
the AGIP we are looking at.
“So, I think we are finally on course and we are going to be
very aggressive on target,” he said.
But he added that improving oil production target was very
dicey.
According to Kachikwu , the council yesterday considered the
Nigeria Petroleum Policy document.
He stressed that the essence of the gas policy, which was
considered three weeks ago, was to change the imperatives of
Nigeria from an oil producing country to a gas producing
country.
Kachikwu was optimistic that the change process that was started
in 2015 will be brought to logical conclusion in the next few
years, if the new document is well-executed.
Ngige said FEC received the National Employment Policy, which
will guide the administration.
He added that the last employment policy in operation in Nigeria
was approved in 2002.
“That’s 14 years and in that 14 years, a lot of things have
changed in labour and employment industry. Things like employment
for people with disabilities, decent jobs programme and doing jobs
without polluting the environment and other things that are new and
contemporary in the labour market.”
On the issue of minimum wage, he said the ministry is awaiting
the nominations from other bodies and groups.
“Once these nominations are in place, the President will then
inaugurate the committee,”Ngige said.
Mrs. Ahmed said her ministry presented the National Social
Protection Policy to the council.
The policy, she said, is a framework that seeks to provide
social justice, equity and inclusive growth by using a
transformative mechanism for mitigating poverty and unemployment in
Nigeria.
According to her, the social investment programme started by the
Federal Government since 2016 were drawn from the policy, which is
presently in a draft form.
•Fed Govt plans to end fuel importation by
2019
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved new policies
for oil and labour sectors, Minister of State for Petroleum
Resources Dr. Ibe Kachikwu and Minister of Labour Chris Ngige said
yesterday.
Kachikwu and Ngige spoke to State House correspondents at the
end of the council meeting chaired by Acting President Yemi
Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
They were with Minister of Information Lai Mohammed and Minister
of State for Budget and National Planning Zainab Ahmed.
Kachikwu said the Federal Government was committed to ending
fuel importation into Nigeria by 2019.
On the plan to end it, he said: “In terms of specifics, what a
policy document does is that it gives you a general guideline in
terms of where you are headed. Then, you go into the specifics in
other separate documents for purpose of execution.
“If you take the 2019 timeframe for refinery for instance, it
won’t tell you what I’m doing today, but it will tell you that I
have set a timeline to exit importation and to get the refineries
working by 2019.
“But if you ask me specifically off the shelve what are we doing
on that? There is a steering committee already in place, which I
head. There is a technical committee team already set up headed by
chief operating officer in NNPC. We have had series of meetings
with individuals who are willing to put money into the
refineries.
“I need to state this clearly. This is not a sale and this is
not a concession. This is a financing scheme and there are over 30
people who have indicated interest in that financing.
“They are going to go through the usual due process mechanism to
see who qualifies for that financing. What we have resolved,
however, which we have at least have a landing is that each of the
refineries would be repaired by the individual company that built
the refinery.
“Who does the work is different from who finance the work to be
done. We are still dialoguing who is going to get the financing
opportunity, but who is going to get the contracting opportunity to
do the work is already decided. If you check the companies that
built, I think is Chioda in the North, Saitem in Warri, if I’m not
mistaken. I have forgotten the one in Port Harcourt. But, all of
them have reached agreement with us in terms of willingness and
readiness to do the work.
“Government is not putting money into this. lt is going to be
sector-led effort and they will recover their money through
incremental volumes that will arise from the production increase
arising from the repairs. We are doing about 30 per cent
performances on most refineries now. So, if you get them to above
90 per cent template, we are going to use some of the product line
to pay for some of the debts and free ourselves from the
importation problems.”
Noting that the refineries, when repaired cannot cover the
required consumption, the minister said some level of efficiency
and upgrade would increase their capacity.
He said: “We are banking on the fact that efficiency steps we
are taking will reduce the consumption. We have gone from the 50
million litres per day when I resumed office down to today that is
about 28 million litres per day.
“So, obviously, efficiency has wiped off smuggling, efficiency
has reduced consumption and also whatever gains we made under the
subsidy regime by taking the subsidy out has also taken out. So, if
we are reducing the level of consumption and increasing the
efficiency of the refineries, we are banking that we will be able
to exit importation completely.
“And this is not building in Dangote refinery that is 165,000
barrel cap on it, or the modular refineries we are looking at or
the AGIP we are looking at.
“So, I think we are finally on course and we are going to be
very aggressive on target,” he said.
But he added that improving oil production target was very
dicey.
According to Kachikwu , the council yesterday considered the
Nigeria Petroleum Policy document.
He stressed that the essence of the gas policy, which was
considered three weeks ago, was to change the imperatives of
Nigeria from an oil producing country to a gas producing
country.
Kachikwu was optimistic that the change process that was started
in 2015 will be brought to logical conclusion in the next few
years, if the new document is well-executed.
Ngige said FEC received the National Employment Policy, which
will guide the administration.
He added that the last employment policy in operation in Nigeria
was approved in 2002.
“That’s 14 years and in that 14 years, a lot of things have
changed in labour and employment industry. Things like employment
for people with disabilities, decent jobs programme and doing jobs
without polluting the environment and other things that are new and
contemporary in the labour market.”
On the issue of minimum wage, he said the ministry is awaiting
the nominations from other bodies and groups.
“Once these nominations are in place, the President will then
inaugurate the committee,”Ngige said.
Mrs. Ahmed said her ministry presented the National Social
Protection Policy to the council.
The policy, she said, is a framework that seeks to provide
social justice, equity and inclusive growth by using a
transformative mechanism for mitigating poverty and unemployment in
Nigeria.
According to her, the social investment programme started by the
Federal Government since 2016 were drawn from the policy, which is
presently in a draft form.
Read more https://nairalaw.com/fec-okays-new-policies-for-oil-labour/