The Federal Government has said the Dangote Petroleum Refinery would not have been able to commence operations under the petrol subsidy regime, arguing that the removal of the subsidy was necessary to create a viable market for private refining investment.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja while presenting the government’s “Nigeria’s Reform Scorecard: The Benefits, Costs and Harms Prevented.”
Oyedele said the removal of the petrol subsidy and the unification of the foreign exchange market had come with high costs for Nigerians but argued that the reforms had also prevented a much worse economic crisis and created the conditions for investments such as the Dangote refinery to operate.
He specifically linked the survival of the Dangote refinery to the removal of the subsidy, saying the plant could not have been commercially viable if petrol had remained at the heavily subsidised price of less than N200 per litre.
“Remember, we’re importing refined products. That is to say the Dangote refinery wouldn’t have been able to start because you can’t sell at N200 per litre and queue up for the government to pay the balance of over N1,000 per litre,” Oyedele said.
