The minister of state for petroleum, Timipre Sylva, has explained how funds for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery will be sourced.
The federal government on Wednesday approved $1.5billion for repairs aimed at reactivating the abandoned project.
The government appears unperturbed despite the positions of critics citing the unstable state of the nation’s economy. For Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president, executing the project at this time will be unwise.
Reacting to reports that the funds will not be sourced through borrowing, the junior minister said only a little percentage (about $500million) of the funds will be borrowed.
“Let me tell you how this rehabilitation is going to be funded; it is not going to be all debts, we are not going to borrow all the monies that are going into the rehabilitation (project),” Mr Sylva said Sunday evening when he appeared on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
“Some of the money will come from NNPC’s internally generated revenue – from NPDC, some of it will come from the Federal appropriation, and just a little fraction will come from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank),” he added.
Giving a breakdown of how the funds will be sourced, Sylva also said the repayment plan is nothing to worry about as it will be paid when it becomes functional, going by the way the project is structured.
“The NNPC is going to spend about $200 million from its internally generating revenue sources, while the Federal appropriation will put in about $800 million and it is already broken down into three parts,” the minister said.
“The 2020 appropriation will give $350 million, 2021 appropriation will give another $350 million, and 2022 appropriation will give another $100 million, making it all $800 million from appropriation, and then the rest of it will now come from Afreximbank,” he added.
