Chief Executive officer, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr. Muda Yusuf, has urged the Federal Government to reconsider its direct involvement in refinery business in the interest of the economy.
This is coming after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) invited the management of the NNPC amid the controversy surrounding the S2.9 billion refinery maintenance and rehabilitation fund.
Speaking during an interview with The Nation, Muda Yusuf disclosed that the involvement of NNPC in the management of refineries across Nigeria has impacted the country’s economy negatively, and the Federal Government has to put a stop to the interference.
Urging the new leadership of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to take the firm to new heights that will make it compete on the global stage, Yusuf maintained that the FG should solely see investors in domestic refineries as partners in progress.
“We don’t want to continue to see a situation where domestic refinery investors will be seen as competitors or rivals to government-owned refineries.
In any case, we would like to see a situation where the government can completely disengage from direct involvement in refinery business because the economy has suffered a lot; we have witnessed a lot of bleeding from the involvement of NNPC in the management of refineries.
We need to put an end to this bleeding,” he said.
According to him, the latest changes in the NNPC is actually long overdue because they should have happened a while back to reset the entire governance framework of the corporation.
Muda hopes that the latest modifications will lead to less political interference in the governance and management of the sector.
“There are changes that were necessary to reset the whole governance framework of the NNPC.
And from the quality of the appointments that have been made, the quality of the management, the quality of the board, many observers of the sector and of the economy have very high expectations of the prospect of good performance under the new management and board of the NNPC.
We are hoping that going forward we see a much more professional posture in its governance. We hope to see less political interference in the governance and management of the sector,” he added.
