Buhari Okays Hyundai To Set Up Car Plant, Rehabilitate Refineries In Nigeria

President Muhammadu Buhari today okayed Hyundai Engineering Company Limited to set up a car plant, and also rehabilitate petroleum refineries.

This was contained in a statement released Tuesday by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina.

According to the statement, President Buhari while receiving Chief Executive Officer of Hyundai Engineering, Mr Chang Hag Kim, at Aso Rock said Nigeria would support Hyyundai’s proposal to assist the country in the rehabilitation of the country’s petroleum refineries and the setting up of a car plant in the most populous black nation on earth.

Mr President also pointed out that the gesture will further make possible the aim of the government to boost local production of finished petroulem products saying “and the goal is to achieve self-sufficiency in the supply of petroleum products within the next three years.”

Speaking further on the setting up of car plan, Buhari said it was a welcome development and assured Hyundai the needed assistance to set up the car plant in the country, “we will collaborate and support to make the investment a reality”, he pledged.

In his reaction, Mr Hag Kim said, Hyundai Engineering Company who hires about 15,000 engineers and technical staff globally, was prepared to contribute to the development of the Nigerian economy.

Mr Kim said the company has been building refineries worldwide and that Hyundai can boast of biggest refinery in South Korea. “We have been building refineries worldwide. We have the biggest in South Korea, with 650, 000 barrels per day capacity. We are also in Venezuela, Iraq, and many other places. We would be glad to contribute our quota in Nigeria,” he said.

It would be recalled that Nigeria, despite being the highest producer of crude oil in Africa, has been exporting its crude to be refined as local refineries have not been actively in optimal production.

SOURCE: OperaNews