The Federal Government has explained how it will raise the $1.5 billion needed for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery.
Recall that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on March 17 approved the plan of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources to rehabilitate the refinery with $1.5bn.
In an interview with Channels Television on Monday, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said the federal government will not borrow all the monies needed for the rehabilitation project.
The minister said part of the money ($800) will be sourced from the Federal appropriation of 2020 to 2022 to fund the project.
He added that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will also fund the rehabilitation project with $200 million.
Sylva said the first phase of the renovation will be completed in 18 months which takes the refinery to a production of 90 percent of its capacity.
He added that the second phase will be completed in 24months, while the final phase will be completed in 44months.
He said: “There are questions asked, when are we going to fix our refineries, when are we going to rehabilitate our refineries? Now, we are rehabilitating the refineries but unfortunately, it is generating all these (issues).”
“Let me tell you how this rehabilitation is going to be funded; it is not going to be all debts, we are not going to borrow all the monies that are going into the rehabilitation (project).
“Some of the money will come from NNPC’s internally generated revenue, from NPDC, some of it will come from the Federal appropriation, and just a little fraction will come from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).”
“The NNPC is going to spend about $200 million from its internally generating revenue sources, while the Federal appropriation will put in about $800 million and it is already broken down into three parts.
“The 2020 appropriation will give $350 million, 2021 appropriation will give another $350 million, and 2022 appropriation will give another $100 million, making it all $800 million from appropriation, and then the rest of it will now come from Afreximbank.”