The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), said the planned inauguration of the Dangote Refinery will bring an end to petroleum products importation and herald industrial renaissance.
The Director-General of NECA, Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, in a statement yesterday, said: “With the petroleum refinery and petrochemical plant as well as the fertiliser plant housed in Nigeria, it invariably implies that there would be no more importation of petroleum products.
“Rather, there will be export of finished products, availability of petroleum products, thus, putting an end to long queues and scarcity of petroleum products.
“A significant plus of this feat will be the attraction of foreign capital investments that the country desperately needs,” he said.
He noted that the multiplier effect of its target 135,000 direct and indirect jobs for Nigerians and displacement of plastics imports in the fiscal space are a part of the economic springboard the refinery would bring to the Nigerian economy.
Additionally, he said the refinery would lead to skills transfer and technology acquisition opportunities with beneficial impacts on the downstream sector.
“This refinery in a sum is one edifice that will turbo-charge the engine of the Nigerian economy. It will also unstrap the strings holding the development of the economy and wade off external and domestic headwinds against efficacies of fiscal and monetary instruments,” he said.
Oyerinde also said the refinery, with 60% of its production capacity, can meet Nigeria’s entire consumption needs, adding that the remaining 40% would be exported to generate a huge amount of foreign exchange and will in no small measure, impact positively on the country’s balance of payment.
“We call on the government and other stakeholders to pay more attention to creating an enabling environment for organised businesses to thrive so that we have more private sector investment to reengineer the nation’s economy,” Oyerinde said. (NAN)
It will also unstrap the strings holding the development of the economy and wade off external and domestic headwinds against efficacies of fiscal and monetary instruments.
