If the 650-000 barrel per day Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Plant succeeds, it will signal an end to the contentious fuel subsidy issue.
This is the position of a former Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu while speaking on Wednesday on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily show.
He, therefore, urged the Federal Government, relevant ministries, departments and agencies to give total support to the $20bn Dangote Refinery in Lagos, Nigeria.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, faces energy challenges, with all its state-owned refineries non-operational. The country is heavily reliant on imported refined petroleum products, with the state-run NNPC being the major importer of the essential commodities.
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But with the forex crisis bedevilling the country’s economy, oil marketers blurted that the imported price per litre of petrol has risen above N1,000 but the commodity is being sold for around N700, depending on the part of the country, suggesting that the government covers the price gap.
Last Thursday, labour leader Joe Ajaero said workers settled for N70,000 as the new minimum wage and rejected President Bola Tinubu’s offer to pay workers N250,000 as minimum wage on the condition that he would increase fuel prices, suggesting a return of the subsidy regime.
When asked about the return of the subsidy regime, former minister Shittu said though he does not have all the facts, “but what I do know over the years is that we have been borrowing for subsidy”.
“It’s a very clear thing to understand. If you produce crude oil at say, N100 per litre because you don’t have refining facilities, you take it overseas,” he added.
“You pay in dollars to transport it overseas to refineries there. You pay in dollars to refine it there. You pay in dollars to bring it back. Can the cost of that one litre of fuel remain N100 or even N200?
“So, unless we can refine locally. And that is why I am complimenting Dangote and I urge that everybody should give Dangote Refinery all the support so that, for once, we can stop exporting our crude oil for refining to bring it back because it would certainly add to the cost. And if we do not want to add to the cost, then we must subsidise. To subsidise you have to take loans.”
