The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Management, Festus Keyamo has denied saying that the federal government approved the Dangote Petroleum Refinery Company as the sole supplier of Jet A1 fuel to domestic airlines.
The minister made the clarification in response to reports quoting him as saying that the government approved the 650,000 barrels per day refinery as the only approved refinery for the job.
Keyamo appeared on Channels TV interview, which aired on Tuesday, where he said “The airline operators just met recently. With my blessing, it’s a decision from the airline operators in Nigeria that they should only buy from Dangote refinery Jet A1.
“You can see that yesterday we started naira-for-crude purchase with Dangote. It’s all Naira, no Dollar component.”
He also said sourcing petrol from Dangote would shield airline operators from the impact of crude oil price fluctuations.
But in a tweet seen by NewsNGR, the aviation boss clarified that the decision was not made by the federal government.
According to him, the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) made the decision and not the federal government.
He clarified, “This is a misrepresentation of what I said. The correct position is that the Airline Operators of Nigeria voluntarily decided they would patronise Dangote Refinery in their purchase of JET A1 Fuel.
“Not that the federal government approves Dangote Refinery as sole supplier. that is not correct.”