Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe
Kachikwu, has once again assured Nigerians that the
Federal Government was targeting 2019 to end fuel
importation in the country.
Kachikwu made this disclosure while speaking at an
interactive session on removal of fuel subsidy,
organised by a Coalition of Civil Society Organisations
(CSOs), in Lagos.
According to him, “For the first time, I am putting so
much strength in terms of what do we do with our
refineries, because that ultimately is the solution.
“I must make the refineries work so that the staff can
justify their work.
“I am going around looking for investors to come in a
joint venture basis to put in money into the refineries
and make them work.
“I can authoritatively say to you that given the
constraints that we face, the plan is that by December
2018, we should have reduced our importation of
petroleum product by 60 per cent.
“This is because we would have brought enough
money to get our refineries working to the tune of
about 90 per cent,” the minister said.
