. NNPC Ex-GED, Upstream, Bello Rabiu, advocates measures to deepen accountability, transparency and efficiency of public refineries as he picks holes in N9 per litre bridging cost
The gross inefficiency of the government owned refineries as well as issues about 5,000 kilometers of pipelines across the country cost the Nigerian government over N264 billion in just one year.
Former Group Executive Director, Upstream of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Bello Rabiu, who declared this in Lagos on Monday, maintained that the country spends over N22 billion every month on these troublesome assets.
“Between N11 billion and N12 billion is spent on refineries every month as well as N12 billion spent on pipelines across the country,” Rabiu said.
Delivering a paper entitled; “Challenges of equitable refining, importation, supply and distribution of PMS in Nigeria,” at a subsidy Workshop organised by MOMAN, Rabiu called for measures to deepen accountability, transparency and efficiency of the national assets.
He stated that many things could be done to cut cost on every litte of the product consumed in the country. One of such measures,he said, is the bridging cost.
“N9 per litre bridging cost is not economic. It does not add value, it is increasing the cost. What this means is that if the N9 is removed on the cost, it makes the price to be better.
“An example of bottled water has been cited. The producers of bottke water are the ones preoccupied with logistics and freight cost to ensure that a bottle of the product which sells at N100 in Lagos is sold at N100 per bottle in Maiduguri. Government does not, like what we have in petroleum sector, budget N9 per litre, to ensure price uniformity.
“So this N9 per litre bridging cost is another money that will make the cost of subsidy to soar.”
“How many years does it take Dangote to put up his refineries that the government could bot out the refineries together for 23 years? In fact, we should make this a key point of campaign for those seeming national offices. What solutions are those aspirants bringing to the table interms of local refining capacity? We need to bbe more serious about all these if we truly desire to move forward.”
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