The news in town is that the Ibe Kachikwu-led Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has finalised plans to get external loan of $500 million to fix the nation’s ailing refineries. He disclosed this while speaking at the Petroleum Club, Lagos. Kachikwu added that the loan would be repaid over nine years. Buhari should move in swiftly and stop this misadventure aimed at plunging the NNPC into further debt. This is money that looks good to go down the drain. Billions of Dollars had in the past been spent on the bogus TAM.
What the refineries need now are private investors to fund the turnaround. In any case, there is nothing to turn around in some of them, particularly the Kaduna refinery. We should be talking about encouraging the private sector to build new ones. What I find most annoying with Kachikwu is that he pretends to be unaware that with $500 million, eight brand new cottage refineries can be built in this country. Chad recently built a 20,000bpd refinery at Dajmarya for $60 million. So, Kachikwu, Please visit Chad and study what is happening instead of planning to squander $500 million on TAM.
YEMI ADEBOWALE
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