Tinubu Orders Sale of Crude Oil to Dangote, Other Refineries in Naira

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) rose from its meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu on Monday with an express approval of the sale of crude oil to indigenous refineries including Dangote Refinery in Naira.

Briefing newsmen at the end of the meeting at the State House, Abuja, Special Adviser to the President on Revenue, Zacch Adedeji said President Tinubu has directed the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited, to ensure this is done with immediate effect.

His words: “Today, at the Federal Executive Council, there was a memo by Mr President, which is to promote the sale of crude oil within local refineries and Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), to deal in our local currency.

“The attitude of Mr President is thinking outside the box to solve Nigeria’s problem and actually to localised the solutions to Nigeria’s problem.
“He has approved through the Council that effective immediately, that NNPC get engaged with local refineries and we are starting that with Dangote Refinery. That the sales of crude oil to Dangote Refinery be denominated in Naria and also the sales of byproducts from Dangote Refinery to distributors also be conducted in naira.

“And what does it mean to our economy? One, the pressure on foreign exchange will be reduced.”

Adedeji said Nigeria currently spends between 30% to 40% of foreign exchange on importation of PMS that it consumes.

According to him: “Monthly, we spend roughly $660 million in these exercise and if you analyse that will give us $7 .92 billion annually.

“With this approval today through FEC led by Mr President, this has reduced by minimum of 90 percent. Because what we have today, the transaction will now be down in our local currency not only to Dangote Refinery but to all local refineries for all our local consumption and this will actually stabilise the pump price.

“This will also make economic stability a reality because there is no longer reality on the fluctuation in forex. Once again, this is an innovation of solving our problem as a country today.”

Details Later….