Nigeria needs oil money to diversify economy – Osinbajo

Despite the low price of oil in the inter­national market, Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has explained that the govern­ment still needs oil revenue to diversify the economy away from oil.

Osinbajo who spoke in Abuja on Monday as the special guest of honour at the public presentation of three books written by Min­ister of State Petroleum Re­sources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu said however that develop­ment in the renewable en­ergy sector means Nigeria’s opportunity in the petro­leum industry in narrowing.

He stressed that the dwindling opportunity in the petroleum markets adds greater urgency for the country to diversify its economy.

According to him, “As we move to diversify our economy, we are particu­larly aware that we need oil to get out of oil, yet our window of opportunity to benefit maximally from the petroleum industry is nar­rowing.

“The development of shale oil, which the author (Kachikwu) spent consider­able time on, the increasing break-throughs in renew­able energy use, the speed of expansion in the use of electric vehicles, Japan now has more electric charging stations than gas stations, all point to the fact that the party might be over sooner than we expected.”

The Vice President, who praised Kachikwu on the three books, described them as one of the most complete thoughts on the petroleum sector.

The three books au­thored by the petroleum minister and unveiled at the event were Compendium of Oil and Gas Cases in Nige­ria, Legal Issues in the Ni­gerian Petroleum Industry, and The Petroleum Indus­try Bill: Getting to the Yes.