…Project to Create
One Million Jobs, Reduce Carbon Emission, Attract FDI
In its avowed commitment to ensure unimpeded supply of
petroleum products and safeguard the environment through reduction of carbon
emission, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ondo State Government to establish a
65,000 million litres per annum biofuel plant in Okeluse, Ondo State.
Speaking when the Governor of Ondo State, Mr. Oluwarotimi
Akeredolu, SAN, led a delegation from the state for the MoU signing ceremony at
the NNPC Towers, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru,
explained that the project was not a one-hundred-per-cent NNPC subsidiary and
that some investors were also bringing in Foreign Direct Investment into the
country for the project.
On the benefits of the project, the GMD disclosed that the
construction of the plant and the production of cassava feedstock could create
at least one million direct and indirect jobs.
Other benefits, according to Dr. Baru, include reduction of
fuel import, reduction of greenhouse gas emission to combat global warming, and
boost in the production of animal feeds from by-products of the plant.
The GMD also allayed fears of any possible negative impact
of the plant on the supply of cassava-based foods for human consumption,
stressing that the cassava that would be used for the biofuel project was a
special breed that would not be in competition for human consumption or
interfere with the activities of farmers cultivating other breeds of cassava or
indeed other crops.
“Your Excellency, we have already discussed with you and you
have agreed to make 15,000 hectares of land available towards the cultivation
of this cassava. It will, of course, in the process invite people who are used
to farming cassava as well as new entrepreneurs who want to go into that
business to participate in the cultivation of the cassava that we are going to
use for the production of the fuel ethanol.
“We expect that this plant, when built, will be producing at
least 65 million litres per annum of fuel ethanol that could be blended into
our Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and will be used in Nigeria and neighbouring
countries when exported,” Dr. Baru informed.
He disclosed that the biofuel project would be fitted with a
40 megawatts electricity plant that would also supply power to the host
communities.
The GMD said NNPC intended to commercialize the greenhouse
gas emission reduction capability of the project to win carbon credit for the
nation from the international community, adding that it could also make money
from such by-product as industrial starch and others which could be converted
to animal feeds to boost food production in the country.
“The benefits of this project to Nigeria and specifically to
Ondo State are immense and NNPC is very eager to see it implemented. We are
working with the investors who will invest because there are several dimensions
to the project,” Dr. Baru enthused.
Earlier, the Governor of Ondo State, Mr. Oluwarotimi
Akeredolu, SAN, expressed confidence that the biofuel project would take off
for the benefit of the people of the state and the country in general.
He assured that the state had enough farmers as well as
cassava to sustain the biofuel plant, stressing that his visit was to show his
commitment to the project.
Present to witness the signing of the MoU were the Nigeria
Export-Import Bank (NEXIM Bank), New Partnership for African Development
(NEPAD) and National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA).
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