KEY POINTS
- Tinubu supports selling Nigeria’s crude oil with Naira to ease exchange rate problems.
- Dangote and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPCL, work together to meet up with Nigeria’s fuel demand.
- On the other also, Afreximbank as settlement bank for Naira transactions.
Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s President, has thrown his support behind a move to Nigerian naira denominated crude transactions, trading activities and settlement across all refineries, as well as refined products locally and internationally, hoping to curb the turbulence in the sector and lower foreign exchange demand.
Tinubu, however, speaking at a review meeting in Abuja asked the Implementation Committee on Naira based sales to ensure issues that may begin to emerge are resolved to ensure the country does not come back to problem of former decades.
Naira based transactions; Tinubu champions oil sector stability
On the economic angle, Tinubu said that deploying the Naira would enable more foreign exchange to be deployed in real sector development, while Afreximbank will serve as the settlement bank making transactions seamless.
Tinubu said ‘We can achieve energy security, and be in a position that you don’t have to speculate on the oil market’, adding that ‘We have an obligation for Nigeria to do a little bit more to meet our domestic petrol demand’ and that ‘we should collaborate between the Dangote Refinery (the largest in Africa, with the capacity to process 650,000 bpd) and NNPCL’.
Self-Sufficiency Goals, while nothing new, create strategic partnerships
Aliko Dangote admits that the refinery has over 500 million liters in reserve and has already delivered 400 million liters into the local market.
Finance Minister Wale Edun said the goal was to make Nigeria a regional hub for refined products and break import dependency.
According to The Vanguard, Once domestic needs are met, it is our vision to turn Nigeria into a global supplier, Zach Adedeji, chair of the technical committee, said.
