Tinubu assures LNG investors that his government will provide conducive environment

PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has assured genuine local and foreign investors of his administration’s commitment to providing a conducive environment for commerce to thrive and for jobs to be created.

Attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) is going to be one of the main challenges the Tinubu administration faces but it is a must if the government wants to grow the economy. As part of measures to achieve this, President Tinubu has been meeting with several private investors in the oil and gas sector.

Earlier today, Julius Rone, the group managing director of UTM Floating Liquified Natural Gas met with President Tinubu in Abuja. After the meeting, he revealed that investors from France and Japan have pledged to invest as much as $5bn in the floating liquified natural gas sector during a meeting with the president.

Mr Rone said that the president also directed them to prioritise the project which is expected to generate no fewer than 7,000 direct and indirect jobs in the country. He added that the investors from Technip Energies of France and JGC Corporation of Japan, were also directed to report any challenge to the president in the course of implementation.

According to Mr Rone the two companies would invest the $5bn in the floating energies in collaboration with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, while the Afrexim Bank is working on the financing aspect.

He added that the project would have a 300,000 tonnes capacity of liquified natural gas per annum as well as meet 25% of local demand of the gas. On local content, Mr Rone said that a number of Nigerians are already being trained on handling of the various equipment for the project.

He added that plants would also be created for the delivery and marketing of the products to customers on completion. Mr Rone was accompanied to the meeting by Emmanuelle Blatmann, the French ambassador to Nigeria; Hiromi Otuski, the deputy Japanese ambassador to Nigeria; Naoki Noguchi, the JGC managing director and local partner Sadeeq Mai Bornu.