SHOCKING: Nigeria Lose 150,000 Barrels Of Oil Per Day - Okonjo Iweala

The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has said that Nigeria loses not less than 150,000 barrels of oil to oil thieves. Speaking in an interview with Christiana Amanpour of Cable News Network ( CNN), she said the country needed to tackle the huge losses it suffered on a daily basis and urged the international community to help Nigeria tackle the problem by treating stolen oil like blood diamond.
According to her: “We realize that we have challenges in our country and we are not denying it. We have a problem with corruption just like any other country and even the developed ones. Nigeria is a country with over 140 million people, many of whom are very honest and hardworking and just want to go on with their jobs. What we should concern ourselves with as a country is how to block the leakages that are ruining us. This is one of the recommendations of the World Bank and remember that is where I have worked before.
With a view to tackling corruption, President Goodluck Jonathan for the first time has met with the legislature and the judiciary on how to move the country forward. “My own take, however is that we need to talk about the specifics, things like oil theft that is ruining our economy. We lose not less than 150,000 barrels of oil per day and because we are a poor country, we cannot afford to lose such an amount of resources.
To help us achieve that, we need the cooperation of the international community. They should not patronize these oil thieves. They should treat the stolen oil the way they would treat blood diamonds. If these oil thieves do not have those that will patronize them, the rate of theft will go down.” On the economic stability of the country, the minister said that Nigeria had recorded considerable growth compared to what it used to be.
“This is the year we are going to produce results and we are already producing results on the economic side. Remember that in the last two decades in Africa, there was so much instability that people could not even concentrate on sectors that could create jobs. Now we have gained a lot in terms of our finance and the market.
We have experienced growth of 6.5 per cent GDP in 2012 compared to the average five percent on the African continent. But in my country, they will say that we do not eat growth because we have challenges of unemployment, we need to create more jobs and we have a problem of inequality. This administration is working hard towards that aspect and our progress should not be overlooked,” she said.
Source: Sun News