OpeOluwani Akintayo
28 February 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho, the Chairman, Integrated Oil and Gas Ltd., has appealed to the Federal Government to provide funding and an enabling environment for indigenous entrepreneurs to establish modular refineries, to meet the nation’s refining capacity needs.
Iheanacho, promoter of 20,000 Barrel Per Day (BPD) production capacity of Eko Refinery and Petrochemical, made the appeal in Lagos.
According to him, the Federal Government should come up with a policy framework that will compel financial institutions to make funds available to indigenous players who might intend to build modular refineries.
He added that encouraging indigenous players with funds will address government’s frequent importation of refined petroleum products into the country.
“Financial support is one major area we need government’s help if government realises that there is need to have a lot of the small-scale refineries to turn around the economy.
“We can now start exporting more refined products than we are currently importing.
“Government should make provision for financing”.
“Building modular refinery requires an investment of millions of dollars. We need government to assist modular refinery operators.
“We are not asking to be given grants and handout but to be assisted in the process of being able to secure funds in major financial institutions,” he said.
Iheanacho also explained that if government could assist the operators to secure finance, it would go a long way to assist them realise some of the benefits that would drive the country’s economic growth.
“The USTDA was proud to support this new project, which will lead to infrastructure development and enhance economic growth in Nigeria.
“This project represents an excellent opportunity for U.S. businesses to export technologies and services in support of Nigeria’s refining goals,’’ he said.
Iheanacho, also the chairman, Integrated Oil and Gas Ltd, appealed to the Federal Government to come up with a policy framework that will compel financial institutions to make funds available to indigenous players that intend to build modular refineries.
Ihenacho urged the government to provide the enabling environment for the integrated oil and gas company to achieve its ongoing 20,000 barrels modular refinery target.
The Integrated oil boss said that despite granting licenses to potential investors, several factors have hindered the actual take off of many of such projects.
He lamented that paucity of funds has become a major hindrance to the take-off of such projects.
“Local banks are not willing to fund such projects as they express fears about the local capacity to manage such projects.
“We have proved to possess the technical competence and engineering capabilities, yet finance is a major problem here.
“If we get funds, we can now start exporting refined products than we are currently importing,” he added.
