Nigeria has spent about $36.3 billion importing finished petroleum products for local consumption in the last five years.
Mr Ganiyu Amao, Director of Research at the apex bank, revealed this yesterday while testifying at the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Refineries Turn Around Maintenance. Amao said the sum total of commodity import into Nigeria stood at $119.409 billion.
Of this sum, $36.371 billion was spent on the importation of petroleum products in the last five years which is 13.5 percent of the entire import.
The CBN also expressed concerns over the pressure exerted on the external reserve as a result of these figures and its adverse effect on our local currency and its depreciating value.
According to the CBN governor, governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, domestic consumption in Nigeria had risen from 4.5 million metric tons to 23.9million metric tons in 2013 but saw a significant drop to 2.6m metric tons in 2016.
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC has been implored to submit relevant information regarding installed capacity, the volume of crude supply and its output, also the Turn Around Maintenance of the existing four refineries. The Ad-hoc Committee chairman Dattin Muhammad was displeased as NNPC had not yet submitted the important documents.
Photo Credit: Thisday Live
