The Presidency on Sunday disclosed that the Federal Government received 35 applications for the establishment of modular refineries in the Niger Delta as part of the present administration’s efforts aimed at repositioning the region.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice-President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, disclosed this in a statement in Abuja on the New Vision for the Niger Delta.
Out of the 35 applications, Akande said 13 had reached what he called the Licence to Construct stage.
“Two out of these 13 refineries are almost ready for shipment. Consideration for Customs duty waiver and some form of tax holiday are also underway,” he said.
Akande also disclosed that the government was working with the Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Fund, the Bank of Industry, AfrExim Bank, and the Nigerian Content Development Management Board to address the issue of lack of financial capacity on the part of the local partners who are expected to come up with a minimum of 15 per cent of cost as counterpart funding.
He listed the objectives of establishing modular refineries in the Niger Delta region to include creation of a robust domestic refining sector necessary to meet and exceed the full capacity of national demand, addressing the proliferation of illegal refineries in the Niger Delta and the attendant environmental degradation, and to provide jobs for unemployed youths in the region.
He added that N65bn was allocated to the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme in the 2018 Appropriation Bill currently before the National Assembly.
Under the scheme, he said 21,615 beneficiaries had been trained, out of which 4,079 had been empowered.
He said, “PAP has empowered 4,079 ex-militants through the establishment of businesses such as agriculture (cluster farms). 3,237 ex-militants are in various stages of vocational training and university scholarship programmes.
“The Amnesty Office has initiated the training of 10,000 beneficiaries in modern agriculture and established them into 10,000-hectare cluster farms in the nine Niger Delta states.
“PAP modern agricultural schemes are projected to create 80,000 new jobs in three years.” Continue reading on PUNCH website