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Nigeria: Senate cautions executive over central bank loans, illegal spending

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The Nigerian Senate has advised President Bola Tinubu to send a supplementary budget for the country’s Compressed Natural Gas initiative and cautioned him against engaging in illegal spending.

Through its Gas Committee, chaired by Senator Jarigbe Jarigbe, the Senate urged Tinubu to swiftly submit a 2023 Supplementary Budget to the National Assembly in order to launch the compressed natural gas project.

This request was made just 48 hours after President Bola Tinubu announced plans to ease Nigerians’ pain from the removal of fuel subsidies. The law, insisted the legislators, forbade extra-budgetary spending.

Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu, in a nationwide broadcast on the commemoration of the country’s independence on Sunday, announced an interim wage rise for low-income workers, and deployment of mass transit buses running on gas to ease the impact of petrol subsidy removal.

Tinubu, in his address, said the government “has opened a new chapter in public transportation through the deployment of cheaper, safer CNG buses across the nation. These buses will operate at a fraction of current fuel prices, positively affecting transport fares. New CNG conversion kits will start coming in very soon as all hands are on deck to fast track the usually lengthy procurement process.”

The Central Bank of Nigeria’s advances to the federal government rose 2900 per cent in the last seven years to N23.8 trillion under Tinubu’s predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, an unprecedented rise that violated the law, triggered inflation and worsened the country’s debt burden; and the Senate is worried the latest “CNG move ” by the executive might degenerate into a similar position

Although the committee’s chairman praised Tinubu for the CNG initiative, he also cautioned that other projects in the gas value chain and the use of taxpayer money without National Assembly approval would be illegal. The senators cautioned against extra-budgetary spending through Ways and Means, saying that the legislature was ready to support and assist the populace.

Jarigbe said, “The noble initiative would ameliorate the hardship of the citizens. Also, the President needs to come up with a supplementary budget to enable the government to fund the gas value chain, including the provision for CNG infrastructure and CNG vehicles.

“The President should not embark on extra-budgetary expenditure because it would be inconsistent with the provisions of the law.”

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Dangote insists refinery has 500 million litres of petrol to meet Nigeria’s needs

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Aliko Dangote, the chairman of Nigeria’s Dangote oil refinery, has claimed a 500 million litre gasoline stockpile, refuting claims by some oil marketers that they had to augment Dangote’s supplies with imports to address fuel shortages.

Africa’s wealthiest man claimed to be a guest of the Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu, along with the finance minister, the head of the state-owned NNPC, and oil regulators at a meeting in Abuja on Tuesday.

The goal was to reconsider a policy mandating that NNPC sell crude oil to the Dangote refinery in local naira currency in an attempt to relieve pressure on foreign exchange and assist the massive refinery in obtaining enough crude to meet its 650,000-barrel-per-day capacity.

After the discussion, Dangote explained that he should not be held responsible for fuel shortages in Africa’s top oil-producing nation because his company does not deal in the retail sale of petrol.

He added that it costs him money to keep fuel in storage tanks.

“I expect the NNPC and marketers to stop importing. They should come and collect; we have everything they need,” said Dangote.
Two weeks ago, local fuel traders began increasing imports, claiming that the Dangote refinery was unable to meet domestic demand, exacerbating fuel shortages.

In September, the Dangote Oil Refinery in Lagos started processing petroleum to produce 25 million litres per day. The objective is to progressively boost output to 35 million litres per day, which Dangote thinks will be enough to satisfy regional demand. However, the industry regulator stated at an oil conference in Lagos on Monday that Nigeria uses 45 to 50 million litres of petrol every day.

President Tinubu advised stakeholders to concentrate on providing enough petrol for domestic consumption to lessen reliance on imports, according to a government spokesperson’s statement.

In order to settle the naira pricing of oil and refined goods, he also instructed them to use Afreximbank, the financial adviser for the naira crude sale plan.

The refinery was forced to rely on costly imports after Dangote filed a complaint alleging that oil majors were preventing it from accessing locally produced oil by selling it above market value or claiming it was unavailable. Previously, Dangote had to purchase crude on the international market.

The plan to sell crude in naira will continue, according to Wale Edun, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, and the government would not meddle in setting the oil industry’s exchange rate.

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Ghana considers imports from Nigeria’s Dangote oil refinery

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The head of Ghana’s oil regulator stated on Monday that once Nigeria’s Dangote Oil Refinery was fully operational, Ghana might purchase petroleum products from the facility, reducing the need for more costly exports from Europe.

Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, the chairman of Ghana’s National Petroleum Authority, stated at the OTL Africa Downstream oil conference in Lagos that this might result in the elimination of $400 million in petroleum imports from Europe each month.

“If the refinery reaches 650,000 bpd a day capacity, all that volume cannot be consumed by Nigeria alone, so instead of us importing as we do right now from Rotterdam, it will be much easier for us to import from Nigeria and I believe that will bring down our prices,” Hamid said.

The Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote constructed the Dangote Oil refinery, which is anticipated to run close to capacity by the end of the year and maybe reach full capacity in the first quarter of 2025, according to analysts.

Hamid claimed that by eliminating freight expenses, buying from Nigeria instead of Europe would result in lower prices for other goods and services. He predicted that African nations would eventually settle on a single currency, which would reduce demand for US dollars.

In the second quarter of 2024, Ghana’s GDP rose 6.9% year over year, primarily due to the robust growth of the extractive industry, which increased demand for petroleum.

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