Following Nigeria’s quest and intense desire for Direct Foreign Investment especially in oil and gas infrastructure development, Blooming Faith Petroleum Ltd, a subsidiary of Blooming Faith Global Holdings Ltd has concluded plans to partner with the Nigerian government to build and operate a 200, 000 barrels per day capacity, BPD, refinery in the coastal state of Akwa Ibom.
Senior management team of the organisation who are currently in Nigeria to kick-start the procedure for the project confirmed in a chat with newsmen in Abuja that successful meetings were held with the leadership of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), with a view to forming a strategic relationship for the sole purpose of producing refined products to shore up domestic consumption in Nigeria.
Speaking on the development, chairman of the company, Dr Robert Yeung, stated that the company’s interest in building a refinery was fired up by the discovery that Nigeria, a major oil producing nation in the world relies on importation of refined products to attend to its domestic needs.
“We became immediately interested for two basic reasons, firstly, as a business entity we have identified the fact that there is a vacuum to be filled, hence there is market for our produce when we get started. This is so because the government of Nigeria will not import what it can access locally as being produced by refineries in-country.
And secondly, because of our confidence in Nigeria as an investors destination of choice in Africa as we know that with a population of almost 200 million people we can never get it wrong with the country and its people.
“We have no interest in exporting refined products as our basic objective is to produce refined petroleum products for the Nigerian market, discussions are currently on-going with the NNPC and the Department of Petroleum Resources and we hope at the end we will get all necessary approvals as we are ready to commence immediately with one hundred percent funding capability.”
Also speaking on the issue, Mr John Erigwe, the company’s International Operations Director, stated that the company has the financial capability and technical expertise to see the project through.
According to him “the company is deeply interested and highly committed to investing in Nigeria’s economy and it is for this reason we sought the audience of the leadership of the NNPC under the Minister of state for Petroleum resources Dr Ibe Kachikwu to meet and present our ideas and proposals to the corporation.
“We are fully interested in doing business in Nigeria and we don’t require any road-show to put our funds in the Nigerian economy as we have done our feasibility studies and risk analysis to conclude that Nigeria inspite of bureaucratic bottle necks is still an investor’s choice destination.
“Our refinery, if approved and completed, would be second in size and output capacity in Nigeria second only to the ongoing Dangote refinery which we gathered would commence operations in 2019.
“Nigeria surely needs these types of investments to boost local production of refined products as it is unheard- of to have a particular commodity in commercial quantity and be unable to maximise its usage for the benefit of its people, and we as investors have seen considerable seriousness for direct foreign investment from the current administration and that is a major part of our motivation,” he said.
The company hopes to site its refinery in Akwa-Ibom state, and also announced its desire to ensure that the refinery is built to a world-class standard upon completion, one that would be a reference point in the refining business in Africa immediately it kicks off.
Highlighting the issues further, Yemie Adeoye, producer of Energie Platform and CEO of D’Alphaxristi Ltd, consultants to the investors stated that it is pertinent that the government eases the pathway to investments as a way of encouraging investors to commit funds to projects.
“This is one of those investments that will have direct impact on the ordinary Nigerian people and the government should give such project immense priority. Investors must be encouraged with incentives and access to government support when required.
“For instance while the government is traveling around the world to woo investors, Blooming Faith international of Hong Kong came down to Nigeria to kick-start the investment process for their organisation in Nigeria. In my humble opinion these types of investors who have shown this level of seriousness should be treated with high level seriousness, granted concessions where necessary and requested and most importantly to such businessmen is the ease of investment process.”
“This project, between construction and completion would generate thousands of job opportunities for Nigerians both directly and indirectly and in a country where the unemployment rate is on the high, this is not an opportunity the federal government can afford to treat with levity” he said.
Blooming Faith International is a Hong Kong based hydra-headed organization with investments and operations cutting through Oil, gas, power, renewable energy, finance, agriculture, healthcare services and drugs manufacturing.
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