Mr Goddy Jedy-Agba,the ministerial nominee from Cross-River, says optimal functioning of Nigeria’s refineries would gradually end the regime of petrol subsidy in the country.
Jedy-Agba disclosed this, on Monday in Abuja, while answering questions at the screening of ministerial nominees by the senate.
He said the solution to subsidy is to revamp the refineries and ensure more products refining locally.
“When refineries are working,there will not be room to ask for subsidy because you don’t need to import.
“We need to reconfigure our refineries to take all the crude produced in Nigeria,” he said.
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He said the huge capital out- lay required to import cargoes of refined petrol is one of the reasons accounting for subsidy regime.
He said the inability of the marketers to meet up with the differential cost of landing of petroleum products had resulted in the request for subsidy.
Jedy-Agba,who retired as Group General Manager Crude oil Marketing at Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) also said there is need to revamp old oil pipelines in the country.
This, he said would mitigate pipeline bust and vandalism.
He also allayed fear expressed by Deputy President of Senate, Sen. Ovie Omo- Agege that there was plan to relocate the ongoing gas project in Delta.
He said no right thinking person would contemplate relocation, given huge investment and infrastructure already committed to the project.
After several questions, on how best to make the oil sector more productive, the senate unanimously ask him to take a bow.
Similarly, the nominee from Jigawa, Mr Sulaiman Adamu, the immediate past Minister of Water Resources, while answering question called on the senate to revisit the water bill.
He said the eventual passing of the bill would attract investors into the sector.
He said the is the need for state governments to invest in water infrastructure to ensure sustainable water supply in the country.
Adamu,said the Federal Government is currently intervening in the provision of portable water saying that water is on the concurrent list.
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He said current administration inherited 116 abandoned water projects,noting that many of the projects had been completed while some are ongoing.
According to him, the ministry under his watch has develop a road map for water and how to open defecation.
According to him, 10 Local government Areas(LGAs) have totally eradicated open defecation.
He said government is intervening in river basin authority to support irrigation for sustainable agriculture.
He also said government has established a national irrigation programme to ensure further development of irrigation in the country,nothing that several dams have been completed by the federal government.
Adamu, after several questions, the senate via a voice vote asked him to take a bow and go.
President of the Senate, Dr Ahmad Lawan in his submission said there is need to revisit the water bill to ensure sustainable water supply in Nigeria.
Similarly, the nominee from Bauchi, Mrs Maryam Katagum in the tradition of the senate was asked to take a bow and go(NAN).
