Buhari witnesses signing of MoU between NNPC and Daewoo to upgrade Kaduna refinery

NIGERIA has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with South Korea's Daewoo Group for the rehabilitation of the Kaduna refinery under the terms of a pact between the company and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).

Signed in Seoul the South Korean capital on the sidelines of the World Bio Summit 2022, the deal was witnessed by President Muhammadu Buhari who attended the global gathering. While in Seoul, President Buhari also held several of high-level consultations and bilateral meetings, especially one with South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol.

President Buhari said: “Daewoo Group has massive investments in the automobile, maritime and other sectors of our economy. I am also aware that Daewoo is currently engaged in the execution of the Nigerian liquified natural gas (NLNG) train seven project and also constructing sea-going liquified petroleum gas (LPG) vessels for NNPC and her partners.”

In addition, he called for an expansion of the Nigeria-South Korea trade relations, urging investors to consider Nigeria as fertile soil for their business activities. While meeting the immediate past secretary-general of the United Nations (UN), Ban Ki-moon, President Buhari lamented that Nigeria is already experiencing the negative fallout of climate change seen in the flooding, desert encroachment and drought experienced in various parts of the country.

However, he expressed delight with the existing cooperation between Nigeria and Korea, especially in the area of energy supply. On his part, the former UN chief who advocates climate change remediation and chairs the Ban Ki-moon Foundation for Better Future, sympathised with the president over the flooding.

Mr Ki-moon called for more investment to improve education, avert environmental degradation and prevent diseases in order to meet the core Sustainable Development Goals. President Buhari's visit was premised on an earlier invitation to the summit based on Nigeria’s selection with five other African countries by the World Health Organisation and the European Union during the last EU-African Summit in Brussels for mRNA technology transfer and the global training for bio-manufacturing of vaccines in Africa.