All Progressives Congress (APC), presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu has promised full deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry.
This is contained in his manifesto, unveiled on Friday in Abuja.
In the document tagged, “Renewed Hope 2023 – Action Plan for a Better Nigeria,” the APC standard bearer said fuel subsidy must be phased out and fund dedicated to it channelled to provide social infrastructures for Nigerians.
Tribune Online checks revealed that in the 2023 Budget presented to joint session of the National Assembly, President Muhammadu Buhari made provision for N3.36tillion in first quarter of 2023.
Nigeria has four refineries with 445,000 refining capacity but none is functioning optimally.
The APC presidential candidate assured the private sector of his administration fidelity to implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act and favourable policies to attract investment in Deepwater assets of the upstream oil sector.
He said:” We shall phase out the fuel subsidy yet maintain the underlying social contract between government and the people. We do this by dedicating the money that would have been used on the subsidy to fund targeted infrastructural, agricultural and social welfare programs ranging from road construction to boreholes, public transportation subsidies, and education and healthcare funding programs. In this way, the funds are more directly and better utilised to address urgent social and economic needs.
“Our planned approach will not only mitigate the price effects of deregulation but will also result in the significant expansion of public infrastructure and improvement of public well-being.
“Subsidy removal and deregulation are, however, only part of the solution. To further increase our refining capacity, we shall focus on the rehabilitation of the nation’s refineries and shall consider, as a model, the joint venture partnership arrangements implemented by other leading oil-producing states and global petrochemical firms.”
“We will hasten the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act and implement favourable policies to stimulate investment in the deep-water assets such as encouraging negotiations regarding signature bonus payment and/or deferral of the payment post development, royalty reliefs amongst others.”
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