ShareAs a palliative to combat the effects of the fuel subsidy, the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) has called on the Federal Government to revive the four existing refineries in order to make fuel more affordable for Nigerians. In a statement made available to the Nigerian Tribune, the President of the association Dr Herbert Ajayi, stated that the six refineries should be made ready for privatisation by the Federal Government. He urged the government to facilitate the supply of crude oil to all private operators previously granted licences for refineries, observing that this had been a snag to the establishment of private refineries in the country. “The government should re-consider and reverse its decision for an agreed period to enable the Belgore Committee determine the true cost of the subsidy by first removing/extracting alleged corruption elements. The importation and distribution of petroleum products should be considered sensitive enough to be made transparent at this early stage. “The government should diligently re-consider the adoption of phased subsidy removal that relates closely with available local production, which will in turn provide employment opportunities and facilitate the growth of industrial clusters in the sector. “The government should urgently push for the speedy passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, which has the capacity to generate more than $5 billion in savings for the country annually,” the president said. Though the association agreed with the Federal Government that fuel subsidy removal was inevitable with deregulation of the downstream sub-sector of the petroleum industry, it condemned the timing of the policy’s implementation as the government did not address the immediate effect on the citizenry and businesses.