Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to completing the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery, saying it would be functional within 18 months.
Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, insisted that the approval of 1.5 billion dollars for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery is not a waste.
“Port Harcourt Refinery will work, and certainly within the next 18 months,” the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva said
The former Governor of Bayelsa State equally added that the Nigerian government also plans to rehabilitate other refineries in the country, stressing that the move is not a waste of funds as believed in some quarters.
“There are plans to also fix the Warri Refinery and Kaduna Refinery and then we would get all those staffs to work,” he added.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved 1.5 billion dollars for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery in Rivers State.
Reacting, the former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, slammed the Federal Government of Nigeria for approving $1.5 billion to renovate the Port Harcourt refinery.
Obi, in a tweet via his Twitter handle on Friday, said it was a ‘huge waste’ for the present administration to renovate the Port Harcourt refinery with such an amount of money
But speaking during an interview, minster Sylva insinuations that the rehabilitation could have taken less than N500m.
“You see, Nigerians like to bandy figures,” Sylva stated. ” I can tell you, that that cannot be true. We are talking with the professionals.”
While many including members of the opposition have raised eyebrows over the funding for the project, with fears that borrowing for the rehabilitation would mortgage the country’s future, he said borrowing will only form a part of the project.
Sylva explained how the project is going to be funded “Let me tell you how this rehabilitation is going to be funded; it is not going to be all debts, we are not going to borrow all the monies that are going into the rehabilitation (project),” he added.
“Some of the money will come from NNPC’s internally generated revenue – from NPDC, some of it will come from the Federal appropriation, and just a little fraction will come from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank)”.
Sylva further gave an assurance that the Port Harcourt refinery will be functional in 18 months.
“Port Harcourt Refinery will work, and certainly within the next 18 months.