KEY POINTS

• NECA Director-General Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde questioned the new NNPC-China refinery MOU, demanding accountability for past spending.
• Nigeria reportedly spent N11 trillion ($25 billion) on refinery rehabilitations between 2010 and 2023 with little operational output.
• NECA wants privatization or concession of the refineries instead of continued turnaround maintenance programs.

Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde’s Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association on Sunday questioned the new memorandum of understanding between NNPCL and Chinese firms to restart and expand the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, demanding accountability for the roughly $25 billion the country has already poured into refinery rehabilitation since 2010.

The NECA director-general called the agreement “troubling,” arguing that Nigerians deserve clear answers on previous rehabilitation outlays before NNPCL signs another opaque pact with foreign partners.

Now Oyerinde’s intervention sharpens the credibility test the Tinubu administration faces over its refinery strategy, which has so far oscillated between turnaround maintenance promises and partnership announcements.

The $25 billion ledger

Specifically, NECA cited Nigerian Petroleum Corporation Limited’s record of refinery spending between 2010 and 2023, which it estimated at more than N11 trillion, or roughly $25 billion, with no sustained refining output to show for it.

“It will be unpatriotic to endorse another opaque deal while questions on past spending remain unanswered,” Oyerinde said.

Indeed, NECA singled out the $1.5 billion rehabilitation approved for the Port Harcourt refinery in 2021. Despite authorities citing 90 percent readiness by 2026, the facility has not produced sustainable refined volumes, the employers’ body said.

Moreover, Oyerinde traced the Port Harcourt refinery’s checkered rehabilitation history through three failed cycles: 2000 to 2010, 2012 to 2015 and 2016 to 2021, all involving substantial public funds.

Demands on the new MOU

Today, NECA wants full disclosure of the terms of the new MOU, including details on technical equity partnerships, procurement processes, technology transfer and safeguards against cost overruns and project delays.

Furthermore, the body insists that only openness and measurable results can rebuild public trust in the refinery program. “We demand answers, not agreements,” Oyerinde said.

Additionally, NECA reiterated its longstanding call for the Federal Government to consider privatization or concession of the refineries instead of perpetual turnaround maintenance programs. The association argued that fixing governance issues in the downstream petroleum sector matters more than another round of public spending on rehabilitation.

Meanwhile, Oyerinde linked the refinery question to broader economic pain felt by businesses. He said Nigerian companies have shouldered the cost of energy insecurity for more than 30 years through high production costs, foreign exchange spent on fuel imports and lost jobs.

“It will be unpatriotic to clap for another MoU while about $25 billion from past revamps produced almost zero result,” he said.

Conditional support for refinery rehabilitation deal

However, NECA stopped short of opposing the Port Harcourt revamp outright. The body said it supports rehabilitation of the refinery for its job creation and supply-diversification potential, but only with transparency, accountability and a proven business model.

Indeed, the conditional endorsement reflects the dilemma facing Nigerian employers, who need functional local refining to cut fuel costs but distrust the institutional record on delivering it.

Together with parallel concerns from NUPENG and other groups, NECA’s intervention places the Tinubu administration’s energy team under fresh scrutiny just weeks after the MOU signing ceremony.

Whether the government opens the books on past spending or pushes ahead without disclosure will determine how much political capital the refinery program retains. Yet for now, Oyerinde’s challenge has put the $25 billion question back at the center of Nigeria’s downstream debate.