Page 5 - DMEA Week 06 2023
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DMEA                                         COMMENTARY                                               DMEA
































                         NNPCL push                           government will have more money to deploy to
                         Sylva has also spoken out about the importance  the development of things that will be useful to
                         of overhauling the refining sector to provide a  all of us as a country,” he said.
                         more sustainable solution to the issue of fuel sub-  However, we have been here before and the
                         sidies which has plagued the Nigerian economy  combination of popular revolt against dramati-
                         for years.                           cally higher pump prices and lobbying by power-
                           “As a country, it is a national consensus now  ful oil marketing companies have made previous
                         that this subsidy is not sustainable; what is desir-  efforts short-lived.
                         able is to ensure that petroleum price is market   The launch of Dangote and the rehabilita-
                         driven and it will also drive investments from the  tion of NNPCL’s wholly-owned assets, despite
                         private sector,” he said.            likely spread over several years, present a fresh
                           He added that the government continuing  opportunity for Nigeria to finally rid itself of
                         to provide subsidies would threaten the profit-  subsidies while limiting the pain in the pockets
                         ability of functional refineries, urging the gov-  of its people.
                         ernment to end subsidies altogether and instead   After several years without processing crude,
                         spend the billions of dollars saved on infra-  Nigeria’s NNPC Ltd said this week that the first
                         structure projects that would support the local  of its four refineries is expected to come back on
                         economy.“Let us remove subsidy so that the  stream during Q2. ™








































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