President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has pledged his administration’s unalloyed commitment to leveraging on the domestic utilisation, processing and international export of Nigeria’s massive gas resources to catalyse the fundamental restructuring of the nation’s economy for expansive growth.
In a meeting on Friday in Abuja with the Board and Management of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited at the State House, President Tinubu affirmed that all encumbrances to the entrepreneurial progress and development of Nigeria’s industrious citizens, as well as any further impediments to business practice in the Oil & Gas sector, specifically, will be swiftly removed to create more opportunities for Nigerian companies and international partners to thrive on the natural and human resource wealth which God had bestowed upon the nation.
“It is now a collaborative effort in thinking and doing. We will work with all partners to redefine the future of our economy,” the President told the NLNG delegation, which was led by its Board chairman, His Royal Majesty, King Edmund Daukuru of Nembe Kingdom and the NLNG Managing Director, Dr. Philip Mshelbila.
President Tinubu affirmed the position of natural gas as the country’s gateway to sustainable development and prosperity, pledging to build a partnership with investors that would guarantee job opportunities and skills development for Nigerian youths in the overriding best interest of the oil and gas producing environments.
“It is all about growing the pie so that Nigerians will benefit,” the President said, adding that “skill development will help the many restive youths who need to be carried along and employed. Their lives need to be more predictable and prosperous.”
In his remarks, the Board chairman told the president that the frustrations faced by non-government stakeholders in operations were being collectively shared with the government, and that the communities should play a greater role in ameliorating the situation, noting that issues of trust between investors and host communities must be properly handled with an emphasis on end-to-end process inclusivity.
Mshelbila and the delegation congratulated the President for winning the 2023 Presidential elections, and setting the tone early and aggressively with bold and correct, long-term reforms which would transform the Nigerian economy within a short period of time.
He further stated that the company had provided a new standard of efficiency in Nigerian public and private sector partnership that is worthy of emulation.
