President Bola Tinubu has approved AFREXIM bank as the intermediary bank to serve as a clearing house for all the transactions under the Sale of Crude and Refined Petroleum products in Naira policy.
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, revealed this while briefing State House correspondents, after he led the committee on the matter to meet with the President.
AFREXIM Bank “will serve as the financial institution that will assist and act as an intermediary to ensure that the parties, the seller of the crude, the buyer of the crude, are able to complete their transactions, no matter the fact that the foreign exchange market is volatile and moves all the time”, he stated.
Edun explained that the meeting was called to review the implementation of the initiative, which was earlier endorsed by the Federal Executive Council, aimed at selling crude to local refiners, who will in turn, sell in Naira, to the Nigerian public.
He noted that the policy imitated by the President, was made possible by the courageous and bold investment, of the Dangote group, in a local refinery of 650,000 barrels per day refining capacity.
He disclosed that the implementation committee and the sub committees have worked assiduously with all stakeholders, “the regulators, including NNDPRA, NUPRC, NIMASA, NNPC, NPA the Navy and a host host of other stakeholders to ensure that this important initiative is implemented, and it is being implemented as we speak, and what It has made possible is that now, we have market pricing of petroleum products.”
The policy had also made market pricing of foreign exchange possible, that has set the economy on the path to industrialization, said the Minister.
Edun noted that with involvement of the private sector in refining of crude oil, the country now has “raw materials, not just for agriculture, but for industry, chemicals, for paints, for building materials for textiles, and of course, this is Mr. President’s strategy and his policy of making conditions right for the private sector to invest, create jobs and grow the economy.”
“Likewise, the market pricing of petroleum products, has also paved the way for NNPC to restore its balance sheet, restore its financial fortunes, and of course, to give the Federation, federal, state and local governments more funding in order to allow them to meet their obligations, including salary payments to workers, social services to the population generally, and of course, key infrastructure development.
According to him, “the economy has been set well and truly on a path, although it’s early steps, and there is much to be done, but we can now see a clear path to industrial development for modernization of the Nigerian economy, because the key prices are right, and it is encouraging private sector investment”.
He assured that the all-important effort will be sustained, adding that “ whatever the teething problems, whatever the initial obstacles to successful implementation of local sale in Naira of crude petroleum to domestic refiners and the and the correlating sale of petroleum products in Naira is fully resolved”
Aliko Dangote, President of the Dangote Group, in his remarks, said the President has directed that the refinery will be patronised by retail outlets, including the NNPCL and other Marketers.
“They will be buying just like any other, that is NNPC retail. At the end of the day, we have also Afreximbank , which I think they are now going to be the bank in between.
“You know, they will now make sure that that they’re going to be like the settlement bank, you know, between Dangote, other refiners, and NNPC, in terms of crude , and then in terms of the selling of the products”
Dangote expressed hope that the initiative will revive lot of industries, including those in plastics, cooking gas, or LPG and even aviation industry will benefit from the policy
