Dangote Refinery’s Success Will End Fuel Subsidy - Ex-Minister Tells FG

 

A former Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu has revealed why Dangote Refinery should not be allowed to fail.

 

Speaking on Wednesday, when he appeared as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily show, Shittu said the success of the 650,000 barrels per day facility will wean Nigeria’s purse off decades-long subsidies on petroleum products.

 

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.

 

Fuel queues are commonplace in the country. Prices of petrol tripled since the removal of subsidy in May 2023, from around N200/litre to around N700/litre, compounding the woes of the citizens who power their vehicles, and generating sets with petrol, no thanks to decades-long epileptic electricity supply.

 

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.