Nigeria, Niger reach mutual agreement on border town refinery

Nigeria’s Minister of state for petroleum, Emmanuel Ibeh Kachikwu and the government of the Republic of Niger‎ have officially reached a mutual agreement for a new construction of border town refinery.

Kachikwu in a series of tweets confirmed ‎the development while he met with the President of the Republic of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou and the Energy Minister of the Republic of Nigeria Foumakoye Gado on Wednesday in Niamey, Niger’s capital.

Kachikwu also disclosed that a mutually beneficial agreement was reached for the construction of a refinery in the border town between the Republic of Niger and Katsina State, Nigeria and a crude oil pipeline from the Republic of Niger to the new refinery.

He further confirmed that a definitive bilateral and technical agreements to be signed in coming days.

Nigeria’s fuel crisis and appropriate pricing for the commodity have been a source of worry for ‎Nigerians,while also putting experts forecast on pruning down inflation rate of 15.37% of last quarter of 2017, according to the National Bureau of statistics reports.

Industry watchers are of the view that the border town refinery would assist easier access to the commodity and free flow of goods and services in the country,which hinges largely on the availability of the commodity at fairer price.