- Safiu Kehinde
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called for quick resolution of issues surrounding Naira pricing for crude oil and refined products.
Tinubu made the call during his address at a review meeting held on Tuesday in Abuja State House.
While commending the Implementation Committee on the Naira-based sales of crude oil and refined products, the President charged oil stakeholders- especially Dangote Refinery and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to quickly resolve issues surrounding the Crude oil and refined products pricing.
According to a statement issued on Tuesday by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu urged the stakeholders to use Afreximbank as a settlement bank to resolve the Naira pricing for crude and refined products, stressing that the bank is already on board as the financial adviser.
“The market must determine what we are doing. Once you allow the market to determine the profit and loss, independent marketers and the government side can meet on the worksheet. I want the issues resolved without future waste of time.
“We can have energy security, and the motivation for Alhaji Aliko Dangote will not be defeated. It will be more predictable on a medium and long-term basis,’’ the President said.
He urged the stakeholders not to take the country backwards in the course of determining the market price.
“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 and the Dangote 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.
This, according to him, would enable the channelling of foreign exchange into the development of the real sector.
On his part, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, said the administration’s groundbreaking steps to sell crude in Naira would not be reversed.
He also affirmed that the government would not be involved in determining the rate of exchange for the oil sector.
Meanwhile, Aliko Dangote, 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 NNPC Ltd to meet an estimated 32 million litres of local petrol needs.