Market News
‘Port Harcourt, Warri refineries ’ll boost naira value, address FX challenges - BLUEPRINT
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A member of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Engr Abdullahi Hashim, has said that the combined production from the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries would not only save the country the much needed foreign exchange, it would shore up the value of the naira.
Speaking in a statement he personally signed and made available to journalists on Sunday, Hashim, who is a Harvard University alumnus, said the rehabilitation of the two refineries will enable Nigeria move from raw materials supplier to value-added product supplier.
He commended President Bola Tinubu for ensuring the successful reactivation of the two refineries noting successive administrations have been unable to get the refineries.
He said, “It is important to commend President Tinubu in ensuring that two of the four refineries began operations within his first 18 months in office. This is salutary and cheering news.
“This is no mean feat as Port Harcourt and Warri refineries had been laid prostate since 1999 by previous administrations while humongous millions of dollars were spent on suspicious Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) that never turned anything around but only left Nigerians more hopeless.
“I am also using this medium to urge the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to ensure accelerated repair works on the Kaduna Refinery and the 150,000 bpd in the old Port Harcourt Refinery in order to bolster Nigeria’s status as Africa’s leading refiner of petroleum products.”