TheCable

“For the first time”, Nigeria’s refineries “are now ready to work”, Ibe Kachikwu, group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said on Tuesday.

Kachikwu also said that the corporation, under his leadership, is saving Nigeria N1 trillion in subsidy “removal” and $1 billion in importation programme.

He said the change at NNPC is only just starting, adding that NNPC will be delivering profit in two to three months.

“All the changes that have happened so far, in case you do not know… but I’m sure you follow the numbers and the reports that we publish, but you’ve gone from an average deficit of over N30bn to 3 billion in a period of six months,” he said.

“If you continue on this tangent, this company should continue to show monthly profitability in two to three months. That would be dramatic, and that is even before we have even started – because we haven’t started.

“This is simply through your 20 fixes; you deciding to cut costs, and to watch your expenses and there’s still a huge amount of expenses you still need to cut.

“But imagine what it looks like if you succeeded in identifying and doing all those. Imagine what it would look like if every business unit followed the same principles and monitored cost at those various levels.”

Kachikwu said that for the first time, NNPC has met up with 75 percent of its responsibility to the federation account, highlighting the new ways of the corporation.

“With the new DSDP programme, not solely designed by me, but by all of you, you’re saving the nation $1bn in importation programme, $1bn.

“Look at the fact that with the removal or connivance on the removal of subsidy cost, you are saving the nation N1 trillion. For the first time this organisation is not worrying about where to get the next subsidy money or who is going to pay it.

“For the first time, our refineries are ready now to work. Crude has been pumped from Brass to Port Harcourt. Pipeline is being used for the first time in six years. For the first time we are able to pump to Ilorin, we have not done that in 10 years.”

He assured that in two weeks, the refineries would begin to receive crude via pipelines.