Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, has once again assured Nigerians that the Federal Government was targeting 2019 to end fuel importation in the country.
Kachikwu made this disclosure while speaking at an interactive session on removal of fuel subsidy, organised by a Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), in Lagos.
According to him, “For the first time, I am putting so much strength in terms of what do we do with our refineries, because that ultimately is the solution.
“I must make the refineries work so that the staff can justify their work.
“I am going around looking for investors to come in a joint venture basis to put in money into the refineries and make them work.
“I can authoritatively say to you that given the constraints that we face, the plan is that by December 2018, we should have reduced our importation of petroleum product by 60 per cent.
“This is because we would have brought enough money to get our refineries working to the tune of about 90 per cent,” the minister said.
