Hong Kong-based Blooming Faith Petroleum Ltd, a subsidiary of
Blooming Faith Global Holdings Ltd has concluded plans to partner with the
Nigerian government to build and operate a 200, 000 barrels per day capacity,
BPD, refinery in the coastal state of Akwa Ibom, reports ITRealms.
Confirming the development in Abuja at the weekend, chairman of
the company, Dr. Robert Yeung said that the company’s interest in building a
refinery was fired up by the discovery that Nigeria, a major oil producing
nation in the world relies on importation of refined products to attend to its
domestic needs.
“We became immediately interested for two basic reasons, firstly
as a business entity we have identified the fact that there is a vacuum to be
filled, hence there is market for our produce when we get started. This is so
because the government of Nigeria will not import what it can access locally as
being produced by refineries in-country,” he said.
Yeung also noted that secondly “because of our confidence in
Nigeria as an investors destination of choice in Africa as we know that with a
population of almost 200 million people we can never get it wrong with the
country and its people.”
For him, they have no interest in exporting refined products as the
basic objective is to produce refined petroleum products for the Nigerian
market, stressing that discussions are currently on-going with the NNPC and the
Department of Petroleum Resources and they hope at the end to get all necessary
approvals ready to commence immediately with one hundred per cent funding
capability.
Also speaking, Mr. John Erigwe, the company’s International
Operations Director said that the company has the financial capability and
technical expertise to see the project through. According to him the company is
deeply interested and highly committed to investing in Nigeria’s economy and it
is for this reason we sought the audience of the leadership of the NNPC under
the Honourable Minister of ststae for Petroleum resources Dr. Ibe Kachikwu to
meet and present our ideas and proposals to the corporation.
“We are fully interested in doing business in Nigeria and we don’t
require any road-show to put our funds in the Nigerian economy as we have done
our feasibility studies and risk analysis to conclude that Nigeria inspite of
bureaucratic bottle necks is still an investor’s choice destination.
Our refinery if approved and completed would be second in size and
output capacity in Nigeria second only to the ongoing Dangote refinery which we
gathered would commence operations in 2019.
Nigeria surely needs these types of investments to boost local production
of refined products as it is unheard- of to have a particular commodity in
commercial quantity and be unable to maximize its usage for the benefit of its
people, and we as investors have seen considerable seriousness for direct
foreign investment from the current administration and that is a major part of
our motivation,” he said.
The company hopes to site its refinery in Akwa-Ibom state, and
also announced its desire to ensure that the refinery is built to a world-class
standard upon completion, one that would be a reference point in the refining
business in Africa immediately it kicks off.
Highlighting the issues further Mr. Yemie Adeoye, producer
Energie Platform and CEO of D’ Alphaxristi Ltd, consultants to the
investors stated that it is pertinent that the Government eases the pathway to
investments as a way of encouraging investors to commit funds to projects.
“This is one of those investments that will have direct impact on
the ordinary Nigerian people and the government should give such project
immense priority. Investors must be encouraged with incentives and access to
government support when required.
For instance while the government is traveling around the world to
woo investors, Blooming Faith international of Hong Kong came down to Nigeria
to kick-start the investment process for their organization in Nigeria. In my
humble opinion these types of investors who have shown this level of
seriousness should be treated with high level seriousness, granted concessions
where necessary and requested and most importantly to such businessmen is the
ease of investment process.
This project, between construction and completion would
generate thousands of job opportunities for Nigerians both directly and
indirectly and in a country where the unemployment rate is on the high, this is
not an opportunity the federal government can afford to treat with levity” he
enthused.
ITRealms recalls that Blooming Faith International is a Hong Kong based hydra-headed
organization with investments and operations cutting through Oil, gas, power,
renewable energy, finance, agriculture, healthcare services and drugs
manufacturing.
No comments:
Post a Comment