The President, Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria, Mr Bode Ayeku, has urged the government to build new refineries instead of rehabilitating the existing ones in order to preserve the country’s foreign reserves.
Ayeku spoke during a press briefing at the secretariat in Lagos.
He said, “ICSAN supports initiatives to increase local production of petroleum products in order to conserve forex for critical projects.
“There is need for stakeholders’ engagement on the planned rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery with $1.5m due to: Information given by the Group Managing Director of NNPC on the need to change focus on entities to maintain refinery instead of looking for those who built them
“Is it not better to build a new refinery with guaranteed output and performance instead of rehabilitating the old ones which we have spent a lot of money on in the past without tangible results?
“We should encourage more modular refineries to increase domestic production.”
He also observed that though the country’s debt profile was high, the government still needed to get dedicated loans to improve security and infrastructural development in order to stimulate the economy and reduce unemployment.
The ICSAN president said that there was a need for proactive use of workers in the public service below grade level 12 that were directed to stay at home.
He said it was important to provide digital tools of work for them or redeploy them to other sectors such as schools to prepare students for examinations or health institutions.
While commending the government on the management of COVID-19 and vaccination, he said it was necessary to embrace e-meetings instead of summoning those in the private sector to Abuja for physical meetings in order to limit the spread of coronavirus spread.
