The Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo on Saturday revealed that Nigeria was losing about 400, 000 barrels of oil daily to thieves.
Osinbajo disclosed this during his lecture titled “Nigerian Economy and the Future”, which he delivered at the 10th Anniversary of Crescent University, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The Vice President said that Nigeria was losing 400,000 barrels a day which amounts to N4.8bn, while Ghana survives on less that 150,000 barrels a day.
Osinbajo who spoke on the new administration’s plan to resuscitate the Nigerian economy said that vandalism in the Southern part of Nigeria had drastically reduced the production of oil.
He said, “The militancy in the south has also reduced oil production significantly and that is why any form of extremism must be put down not only because of the economy but for the unity and peace of the country and that is why all the recent initiatives are important because we must deal with the question of economy.
“In the petroleum sector, vandalism also contributes in no small measure to the drop in the output of the sector. 400, 000 barrels are stolen on daily basis while countries like Ghana only survive on less than 150, 000 barrels.”
Osinbajo on power, assured that the government will increase Nigeria’s current 13,000 megawatts generating capacity, as well as increase the transmission capacity which currently stands at 5,000 megawatts.
He said that the 10% GDP growth promised by the new administration would be impossible without an increase of supply in the power sector.
He also revealed that the administration will consider the option of privatizing the transmission of power which was still in the hands of Federal government.
He said, “The 10% GDP growth annually cannot happen until we increase the supply in power sector. While we will maintain the generating capacity which stands at 13, 000 megawatts, we must also increase the transmission capacity which currently stands at 5, 000 megawatts, without that, it doesn’t matter the number of megawatts we generate.
“We must improve the generating capacity and also improve the evacuating capacity. The gas is there but the infrastructure that can transmit the gas is not in place, we observe that the project has been awarded for long but not completed; we will ensure the completion of the infrastructures while we also look at the privatization of the transmission”.
Osinbajo who said that transparency would be the watchword of the present administration, assured that the Buhari-led government would not renege on its campaign promises and urged Nigerians to be patient with them.
