THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has called for tariff harmonisation on non-oil products. Dr Bello Rabiu, Chief Operating Officer, Upstream, NNPC, said harmonisation of tariff on non-ECOWAS goods would promote better economic cooperation with regards to non-oil exports.
Rabiu made the call during a panel session of West African International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (WAIPEC) organised by the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) in Lagos on Wednesday.
Represented by Dr Siky Aliyu, Managing Director, National Engineering and Technical Company (NETCO), Rabiu said that the harmonisation will expectedly counter the effects of smuggling across the ECOWAS borders.
According to him, the tariff harmonisation will spur coastal countries to work towards making their ports preferred import destinations to attract greater trade flows and by extension fiscal revenues.
“It will promote trade amongst West African countries and by extension ECOWAS can forge partnerships with Europe, Asia etc. for the export of their agricultural produce. In terms of economic and trade cooperation amongst ECOWAS countries, the recently proposed Niger-Kaduna Refinery crude export pipeline offers a panacea for landlocked West-African countries.
“And such should be promoted as it acts as an alternative source of crude supply to an existing ready market. Similar infrastructure running from Chad to Cameroun’s Atlantic coast is in operation,’’ he said.
He said that there is need for new investment in refining capacity to grow and sustain internal consumption and promote external trade amongst West-African countries.
He said that there are plans to increase capacities in Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Niger Republic, with regards to the Nigeria, it is private-sector led – Dangote Refinery which is proposed as a 650,000bopd in Lekki, Lagos.
“Aside this, NNPC’s plan is to rehabilitate, revamp and upgrade all existing refineries to ensure that by 2019 there would be no more product import. Similarly, we are supporting the concept of condensate refineries to refine more condensates in-country. Based on the foregoing, it is imperative that we need to balance high crude output with high refining capacities to reduce imports costs and charges, export charges, subsidy payments,” he said.