Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream, Senator Jide Ipinsagba, on Sunday said, efforts are in top gear to ensure all refineries in the country are functioning before the end of the year.
Ipinsagba who gave this assurance while speaking with journalists in Akure, the state capital, assured that Kaduna, Port Harcourt, and Warri refineries will be fully operational by December 2024.
According to him, the completion of these refineries will enable the country to meet its domestic fuel demand and ensure that internal consumption is no longer a challenge to Nigerians.
He disclosed, “Port Harcourt refinery today has about 90 to 95 percent, optimization in terms of retrofitting, and Warri is about 80 percent and Kaduna is about 70 percent.
“Dangote refinery is ready to operate any moment from now so with all these internal consumption of fuel will not be a problem.
“We also find out to that we have the opportunity to export our oil, that will also improve our exchange rate because we have started exportation, that is all about refinery, we are expecting the refinery to kickstart before the end of this year”
The Senator representing Ondo North senatorial district, frowned over uncompleted or abandoned projects littering across the country, noting some newly elected lawmakers always abandoned people-oriented projects started by their predecessors.
Ipinsagba who assured that he would not abandon any project embarked upon by his predecessor said he would rather complete all of them to consolidate the new ones.
“Projects should not be abandoned after the expiry of tenure in the office office, a newly elected Senator should not abandoned what the past Senator has started because it is nobody’s property it is the property of the Federal government. They should make sure they complete it for the betterment of the society”
Speaking on some of the projects executed by him in the last year, Ipinsagba said “Adekunle Ajasin University has been lighted up, even some places in Owo and Ikare and environs. We have asked them to start boreholes, we are also working on an immediate response from the community on emergency issues.
“We have also distributed palliatives to people, we distributed rice and fertilizer to the farmers, through the farmers’ association. This is to encourage farming on our land.
“We are also working on having an Information and Communication Technology Center in a Ikare Akoko. it is the first of it’s kind in the whole of Africa”.
