Emefiele
also disclosed that the first shipment of Urea from the Dangote Fertiliser
Plant would begin in March to help boost agriculture in the country.
Emefiele
made the disclosure on Saturday during an inspection tour of the sites of
Dangote Refinery, Petrochemicals Complex Fertiliser Plant and Subsea Gas
Pipeline projects at Ibeju Lekki, Lagos.
The CBN
governor said the $15 billion dollar projects being constructed by the Dangote
Group would save Nigeria from expending about 41 per cent of its foreign
exchange on importation of petroleum products.
Emefiele
said: ”Based on agreement and discussions with the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation and the oil companies, the Dangote Refinery can buy its crude in
naira, refine it, and produce it for Nigerians’ use in naira.
“That is
the element where foreign exchange is saved for the country becomes very clear.
“We are
also very optimistic that by refining this product here in Nigeria, all those
costs associated with either demurrage from import, costs associated with
freight will be totally eliminated.
“This will
make the price of our petroleum products cheaper in naira.
“If we are
lucky that what the refinery produces is more than we need locally you will see
Nigerian businessmen buying small vessels to take them to our West African
neighbours to sell to them in naira.
“This will
increase our volume in naira and help to push it into the Economic Community of
West African States as a currency,” Emefiele said.
Emefiele
expressed optimism that the refinery would be completed by the first quarter of
2022, adding that this would put an end to the issue of petrol subsidy in the
country.
“I am
saying that by this time next year, our cost of import of petroleum products
for petrochemicals or fertiliser will be able to save that which will save
Nigeria’s reserve.
“It will
help us so that we can begin to focus on more important items that we cannot
produce in Nigeria today,” Emefiele said.
He said the
CBN had given a N100 billion intervention to the projects, adding that the apex
bank was ready to support Nigerian businesses set up to uplift the country
economically.
Aliko
Dangote said that the fertiliser and petrochemicals plants were capable of
generating $2.5 billion annually while the refinery would serve Nigeria and
other countries across the world.
He said the
projects would create jobs for Nigerians and build their capacity in critical
areas of the oil and gas industry.
Dangote
thanked President Muhammadu Buhari and the CBN governor for their support
toward the completion of the projects.
“I will
like to thank the president personally for helping us and assisting us in
making sure that we are now back on track.
“Mr
President personally wrote a letter to the president of China and asked them to
bring the expatriates that we don’t have so that we can continue work.
“During the
coronavirus, you will remember that we had one or two cases when it started and
everybody ran away from site but right now we are beginning to bring people
back and we have about 30,000 people now.
“The good
part of it is that we have learnt a lot also and there are a lot of Nigerians
that just need small training and they are doing extremely well.
”So now we
only need a small number of people coming from abroad just to give that
training.”
Dangote
also called for the speedy passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill currently
before the National Assembly to maximise the opportunities in the Nigerian oil
and gas sector.
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