A destroyed refinery By Favour Ifeoluwa & Akinola Ajibade The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited( NNPCL) says it has destroyed 134 illegal refineries in the last few weeks. Also, the company said 63 illegal pipeline connections were uncovered during the the weeks . The corporation, In a visual report, stated that at about 2 am on Sunday, a joint team of security agents discovered a large wooden boat illicitly loading stolen crude oil from Barge AGS01 within the OML 18 operating area, noted intelligence report a large wooden wooden boat was caught receiving crude oil from the barge. According to the state-owned oil firm, while the barge was towed away with a tugboat in custody, five speedboats used in towing the large wooden boat to the illegal loading site were also detained and the particulars of the tugboats and barge used for the operation were reportedly seized for further investigation. It further said that two large boats, which involve
He disclosed this in the “Half Year Economic Review”, report made available to News Mirror recently.
He lamented that manufacturers are grappling with problems such as high cost of logistics, inability to access foreign exchange, raw materials, adding that and the rising costs of duties on alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages are impacting negatively on consumption of those products.
He said :“Investors across sectors in the economy are concerned about the increasing energy costs, especially the cost of diesel which has gone up by over 300%, the cost of aviation fuel which has gone up by another 300%, the cost of gas which has increased by over 100%. The cost of PMS is still moderately tolerable because of the subsidy regime that is still currently being provided by government.”
According to him,the frequent collapse of the national grid makes it even more difficult for many businesses to continue to sustain their operations, as costs have become elevated, profit margins are being eroded, purchasing power is weakened and business sustainability is at risk.
Businesses,he said, have suffered serious dislocations as a consequence of foreign exchange liquidity challenges, volatility and the depreciation of the currency which have severely affected businesses across all sectors of the economy as the sharp depreciation of the exchange rate and the parallel market which is over 300%, have worsened the profitability of investments.
He said,costs of operation and production have gone up from between 30-100% as a result of the exchange rate crisis,which forced many players in the economy to resort to the patronage of the parallel market at very prohibitive cost, with very little access existing on the official window.
He added that challenges facing Nigerian manufacturers include, access to sugar and resins. Sugar is used in many of the beverage Industries such as bread and the like. Resins are used for purposes of packaging materials. These are also critical inputs for practically all manufacturing sectors.
He said:“Manufacturers also continue to grapple with the problems of high cost of logistics, access to foreign exchange, access to raw materials and the impact of excise duty on alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages which is impacting demand for their products”.
He said ECOWAS since nations including Benin Republic have been imposing prohibitive transit taxes and levies on transit goods passing through its borders, it is making many of these cross-border businesses very unproductive and very unprofitable.
He added:“We appeal therefore to the authorities in Nigeria and Benin Republic to resolve whatever issues there is on this matter.
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