Over $300bn Losses In Oil Investments In 3 Years, Says Kachikwu

According to Kachikwu, while investors prefer to invest the limited resources elsewhere in African countries, what Nigeria is losing, other countries in Africa are gaining.

He said, “The situation is very challenging when it comes to losing opportunities arising from investment. For the first time in the oil sector, the decline in the oil price resulted into loss of jobs.

“Infrastructural gap is another factor which the decline in the price created. We have an infrastructural gap deficit of 50 billion dollars because government was responsible for infrastructure and we did not engage the private sector.

“The whole idea of the new petroleum policy is to move the private sector into financing part of the projects, because Government cannot do it alone”.

The minister said on the Nigerian side, the loss of these investments was due to inefficiency in the country’s security policy and inconsistency in policies.

Kachikwu, however, said some countries and people were moving away from oil as electric motors take over globally.

“In the next 20 to 25 years, oil lifespan will expire, so we just need only five years to make a change of policy in the sector. We must make a traumatic decision for the oil sector to survive the innovation. The country needs a consistent policy and to deal with inefficiencies in our system to survive the trend”, he noted.