The President of Federal Republic of Nigeria, Pres. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR has directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, to sell crude to Dangote Refinery in Naira.
TheMediaGood gathered this from the statement of Special Adviser to the President on Information and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga made via his official X (formerly Twitter) handle.
Onanuga disclosed about the presidential directive: ‘To ensure the stability of the pump price of refined fuel and the Dollar-Naira exchange rate, the Federal Executive Council today adopted a proposal by President Tinubu to sell crude to Dangote Refinery and other upcoming refineries in Naira.’
‘Dangote Refinery at the moment requires 15 cargoes of crude, at a cost of $13.5 billion yearly. NNPC has committed to supply four. But the FEC has approved that the 450,000 barrels meant for domestic consumption be offered in Naira to Nigerian refineries, using the Dangote refinery as pilot. The exchange rate will be fixed for the duration of this transaction.’
‘Afreximbank and other settlement banks in Nigeria will facilitate the trade between Dangote and NNPC Limited. The game changing intervention will eliminate the need for international letters of credit. It will also save the country of billions of dollars used in importing refined fuel’.
This move by the President is expected to effectively wade into the impasse between the NNPCL and the world’s largest single-train refinery, Dangote Refinery. which had grabbed so much attention and is almost becoming the embarrassment for a country that is reputed to be one of the world’s largest oil producers.