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Port Harcourt Refinery: ‘Not All $1.5bn Will Be Borrowed’, FG Tells Nigerians
- Sylva said that going by the way the project was structured, the operations of the refinery would pay back the funds to be used
- The minister also explained that a commercial discussion between the NNPC and Afreximbank on how the money will be paid from the operations of the refinery is ongoing
The Federal Government has said that the planned rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery in Rivers State will not in any significant way add to the nation’s debt burden.
Last week, the Federal Executive Council approved $1.5 billion to fund the project, a decision that has since generated reactions from various parts of the country.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, while reacting to the development on Sunday, assured Nigerians that the project would not worsen the nation’s debt profile.
According to him, the government does not intend to borrow all the funds to rehabilitate the refinery which he said would be functional in 18 months.
Read also: More Info Needed To Justify Approved $1.5bn For Port Harcourt Refinery – Fayem
Sylva stated that a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) – Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Ltd (NPDC) – and others would contribute the money to be used for the project.
“There are questions asked – when are we going to fix our refineries, when are we going to rehabilitate our refineries? Now, we are rehabilitating the refineries but unfortunately, it is generating all these (issues),” the minister said while featuring on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
He added: ”Let me tell you how this rehabilitation is going to be funded; it is not going to be all debts, we are not going to borrow all the monies that are going into the rehabilitation (project).
“Some of the money will come from NNPC’s internally generated revenue – from NPDC, some of it will come from the Federal appropriation, and just a little fraction will come from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).”
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