President Bola Tinubu has commended the Implementation Committee on the Naira-based sales of crude oil and refined products, and asked the members to resolve any teething problems.
In a review meeting at the State House, Abuja, on Tuesday, the President said using the Naira was conceived to remove the exchange rate hurdle.
“Whatever solution we proffer in crude oil and refined products sales in Naira should not take us back to our experience in the last 40 years. There can be cost and revenue adjustment in the oil sector, but the issue is that the government will not have to go back to the old way of doing things”, the President stated.
He said the various players in the oil sector, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Ltd., (NNPCL), and the Ɗangote Refinery, should work to improve the economy and the livelihood of Nigerians.
The President urged stakeholders to look inward and consider supplying enough petrol and petroleum products for local consumption to stop the persistent reliance on importation. He said this would enable the channelling of foreign exchange into the development of the real sector.
The President advised stakeholders to use Afreximbank as a settlement bank to resolve the Naira pricing for crude and refined products. Afreximbank is already on board as the financial adviser.
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, said the administration’s ground-breaking steps to sell crude in Naira would not be reversed. He said the Government would not be involved in determining the rate of exchange for the oil sector.
President and Chief Executive of Dangote Group, Aliko Ɗangote, told the President that his refinery had more than 500 million litres of fuel in reserve after supplying 400 million to the economy. He said the refinery could collaborate with the other refineries managed by NNPCL to meet an estimated 32 million litres of local petrol needs.
Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, (FIRS), Zach Adedeji, who chairs the technical committee, said importing refined products should end once the capacity to produce enough to meet domestic needs was achieved. “The vision of Mr. President is to turn Nigeria into a hub for refined products to export to the world”, he said.
The meeting had in attendance the President and Chairman of the Board of Afreximbank, Prof. Benedict Oramah, and the Minister of Budget and National Planning Sen. Abubakar Atiku Bagudu and the Group Managing Director of NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, among others.