President Muhammadu Buhari on
Saturday said Nigeria would save $10 billion annually from importation of
petroleum products when the nation’s four refineries are fully repaired.
The president disclosed this in a
nationwide broadcast to mark the nation’s 56th Independence Anniversary on
Saturday.
The President frowned at the
situation where half of the nation’s foreign exchange earnings were being spent
on importation of petroleum and food items.
He attributed the current
socio-economic hardship being experienced in the country to inability of the
previous administrations to save for the “rainy days’’.
He said, “Historically about half of
our dollar export earnings go to importation of petroleum and food products, nothing
was saved for the rainy days during the periods of prosperity. We are now
reaping the whirlwinds of corruption, recklessness and impunity. There are no
easy solutions, but there are solutions nonetheless and government is pursuing
them in earnest. We are to repair our four refineries so that Nigeria can
produce most of our petrol requirements locally, pending the coming on-stream
of new refineries. That way we will save $10 billion yearly in importing
fuel.’’
Buhari said his administration’s
economic revival strategy was centered on the Ministry of Power, Works and
Housing.
He explained that the ministry will
lead and oversee the provision of critical infrastructure of power, road
transport network and housing development.
He said power generation in the
country had steadily risen since his administration came on board from 3,344
megawatts in June 2015, to a peak of 5,074 megawatts in February.
“For the first time in our history,
the country was producing five thousand megawatts.’’
He, however, lamented that renewed
militancy and destruction of gas pipelines had continued to cause acute
shortage of gas and constant drop in electricity output available on the grid.
The president also noted an
appreciable improvement in power transmission between June 2015 and September
2016.
He said there were only two system
collapses between June and December 2015, while the over-all system suffered 16
system collapses between March and July 2016 alone.
He attributed the incidents to
vandalism by Niger Delta militants.
He said, “As I have said earlier, we
are engaging with responsible leadership in the region to find lasting
solutions to genuine grievances of the area but we will not allow a tiny
minority of thugs to cripple the country’s economy.
“In the meantime, government is
going ahead with projects utilizing alternate technologies such as hydro, wind,
and solar to contribute to our energy mix.
“In this respect, the Mambilla Hydro
project, after many years of delay is taking off this year.’’
According to the president, contract
negotiations for the Mambilla project are nearing completion with Chinese firms
for technical and financial commitments.
He said the project would be jointly
financed by Nigeria and the Chinese-Export-Import Bank.
Buhari said power purchase
agreements on 14 Solar Power Projects had been concluded.
He said, “Hence, the plan to produce
1,200 megawatts of solar electricity for the country will be realized on
schedule.”
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