Ben Murray Bruce, the CEO of Silverbird Group and a former congressman from Bayelsa, has recommended that the government led by President Bola Tinubu legalise the activities of illegal refineries in the nation, arguing that these facilities might provide many Nigerians’ energy needs.
Bruce made this request in a video that was uploaded to his official X account on Monday. Rather than demolishing the illegal refineries, Bruce asked President Tinubu to guarantee bank loans to the operators of these refineries and oversee their conversion.
Bruce maintained that a sizable number of illicit refineries provide roughly 20% of the fuel, diesel and kerosene supplies to some local towns, according to Anaedoonline.ng.
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“A significant number of illegal refineries operate, contributing nearly 20% of the diesel, kerosene and petrol supply to some local communities,” Bruce said.
“Although their method of production maybe considered crude and illegal by the government, these refineries play a crucial role in meeting the energy needs of many people, rather than destroying these facilities, I am yet again proposing a more progressive approach, the government should provide such operators with guaranteed bank loans and supervise the transformation of these illegal refineries into technology-driven modular refineries, thereby increasing refining capacity and meeting up a large percentage of the country’s petrol production demands,” he added.
His remark coincides with Dangote refineries preparing to start up. Prior to now, Nigeria used to send its crude oil abroad for processing, meaning that the dollar was used to determine the price of petrol and diesel.
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