The Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, in a podcast message, has reeled out government’s future plans for the petroleum sector, emphasising the need to heal some of the parastatals under his ministry of gross inefficiency and corporate inertia due to their heavy reliance on government’s funding by making them trim, fit and self sustaining.
“Parastatal and agency restructuring is going on very massively. We did that of NNPC before I left. It is continuing. But we are facing the other parastatals to make them more efficient, more profitable and more focused. With that, we come to the exit of some of them from federal budgeting because then, they will be able to stand on their own feet, provide for themselves and be able to run their shots”, he explained.
Aside the NNPC, other parastatals under the Ministry of Petroleum Resources that will be affected in the impending restructuring are: the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Petroleum Technical Development Fund (PTDF), the Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA), the Petroleum Product Price Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and the Nigerian Content Development Management Board (NCDMB).