Buhari Approves New Policy On Local Production Of Bitumen

President Muhammadu Buhari has given approval  for the new policy on local production of Bitumen

The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who disclosed this at the end of the Council meeting said the policy was approved to develop strategies to enhance, stimulate, and encourage local production of bitumen in the country.

He expressed optimism that the policy, when fully operational, would enable the country save millions of dollars from importation of bitumen, which is a raw material used in road construction, worldwide.

“The Ministry of Works and Housing presented a memorandum on the initiative of the President as to our source of bitumen which is used in road construction.

“It was a policy memorandum which revealed that a significant amount of bitumen we used in road construction in Nigeria is imported, therefore creating jobs abroad and recommended to council to approve a directive to the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development to develop strategies to enhance, stimulate, and encourage local production of bitumen.

“Essentially, that policy recommendation was approved by the council today to encourage bitumen production locally in Nigeria.

“This will of course help to further diversify the economy and open another sub-sector of the extractive and hydrocarbon industry for local opportunities,’’ he said

According to Fashola, there’s a demand of 500,000 metric tonnes of bitumen locally in Nigeria per annum.