As part of its drive for increased Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) into the Nigerian oil and gas industry, the Federal Government has finally set up the Oil and Gas Investment Promotion Centre at the Ministry of Petroleum Resources in Abuja.
The Investment Promotion Centre is to make it easy for prospective investors to make enquiry as well as to play in the sector.
On the other hand, oil and gas exploration and production companies affiliated to the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS), a group under the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) said they have paid tens of billions of Dollars to Nigeria in the last 60 years of the group’s existence in the country.
The duo of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva and the Chairman of OPTS, Mr. Rick Kennedy made the disclosures at the 60th anniversary dinner of OPTS held in Lagos, recently. Delivering his goodwill message at the occasion, Sylva, who was represented by the Acting Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr. Kamoru Busari, said setting up of the investment promotion centre was part of the government’s effort to create an enabling environment and attract more investors into the oil and gas sector.
The ministry had in August this year inaugurated a committee on the establishment of an oil and gas promotion office in Abuja to interface with businessmen interested in investing in the sector. Busari, who was at the time, the Director overseeing the Office of the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, had explained that having an investment promotion office in the ministry was a strategic milestone to get investors to put their money in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
He had also stressed that the initiative would come in handy to businesses, given the country’s enormous oil and gas deposits, adding that the inauguration of the committee that was sequel to the approval granted by the Sylva on 22 June, 2022.
But speaking at the OPTS 60th anniversary dinner, Sylva explained that as the government seeks to maximise the value from the nation’s crude oil, gas, which had been declared as Nigeria’s transition fuel would help in the government’s drive to address the country’s energy poverty status in power, transportation, agriculture and other critical sectors to fully industrialise to nations.
According to him, achieving the goals would therefore require the creation of a conducive business environment to attract all the available FDI in the sector.
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