The Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association of Nigeria, NOGASA, has urged President Bola Tinubu to declare a state of emergency on the country’s refineries if the economy must be stabilized.
The President of NOGASA, Benneth Korie, made the appeal on Tuesday at a news conference in Abuja, while assessing current developments in the oil and gas sector.
Korie said declaring a state of emergency on the nation’s refineries would help to retool the economy.
“It is very important that the Nigerian government declares a state of emergency on our refineries. It will help in stabilizing distribution price, not just halting importation,” he said.
The NOGASA boss said Tinubu’s administration should do whatever is possible to ensure the refineries work and also stabilize the naira against the dollar.
This, according to him, was part of the reasons the refineries were yet to work.
“Whatever it will take for the refineries to work, let them work.
“So, the answer to all these increments is for our refineries to start working optimally, and the products should be sold in naira to marketers,” he added.
He also called for the reintroduction of bridging claim payment to marketers since the subsidy removal was not yielding any positive result.
He wondered why the government’s projection in the 2024 budget would be N750 to a dollar, while the black market price had moved close to N2,000.
