President Bola Tinubu, in a major decision, has now asked the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to sell crude oil to Dangote Refinery and any other local refiners in Naira for the purpose of balancing the pump price of fuel and the dollar-Naira exchange rate.
The Presidential order, announced by Special Adviser to the President on Information and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, was the first item on the agenda of the Federal Executive Council meeting that took place on Monday.
According to Onanuga, the aim is to price refined fuel properly and maintain the Naira to Dollar exchange rate by using Naira to pay for crude oil produced in Nigeria from the crude oil refined by the national refineries.
Dangote Refinery, which needs 15 cargoes of crude oil that will cost $13.5 billion yearly, will serve as the flagship refinery of this plan.
Allocation of four cargoes is a commitment of NNPC, while the Federal Executive Council has permitted the offer of 450,000 barrels to be sold in Naira to the local Refineries for domestic consumption.
Afreximbank along with other Nigerian banks will act as settlement banks, therefore the trade will be realized between Dangote and NNPC Limited and the issuance of international letters of credit will be eliminated saving the government huge amounts of money in the importation of petroleum fuel.
