The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, says the Federal Government is targeting about two billion dollars from oil and gas lease licences renewal.

Kachikwu disclosed this while fielding questions from newsmen at the just concluded Nigerian International Petroleum summit, yesterday, in Abuja.

“We projected for the licences renewal probably around two billion dollars; right now, we are at about 1.2 billion dollars, 1.3 billion dollars.

“I don’t have the total number of the people renewing but I’m aware it should be around 20 to 30 renewals,” he said.

He said although most of the licences were due for renewal between 2019 and 2020, the ministry decided to start early for some policy reasons.

According to him, the law allows that one can renew licence six months before expiration.

“We decided to start the process early to generate some revenue for government.

“We also looked at the terms under which they are renewed; that is all what we are doing,” he said.

Kachikwu noted that early renewal was necessary for many companies to have the opportunity to access money from banks for investment.

He added that companies that had less than six months for their licences to expire would not have access to fund from any financial institution.

“So, you need a long span to be able to get all these and that is what we are trying to do,” he said.

He noted that terms under which the licences were being renewed were reviewed, adding that a lot of revenues were being generated. (NAN)

https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/fg-targets-2bn-from-oil-gas-lease-licence-renewal.html

Which target?

As long as they transfer all licences to the north, they will sweep everything under the carpet as usual.

Say no to nepotism.

Business...abi what?