Economist and financial analyst Muda Yusuf has called on the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to release a verified estimate of the country’s fuel shortfall before issuing import permits to petroleum marketers. He said greater transparency could help restore the operating position of Dangote Refinery.
Yusuf made the appeal over the weekend as official data showed a 43.3 percent increase in petrol imports. NMDPRA fact-sheet figures indicated that inbound petrol volumes had climbed despite Dangote Refinery’s ability to supply the domestic market.
Dangote Refinery has attributed the growth in imports to what it described as NMDPRA’s continued approval of petrol-import licences. The large-scale plant has also warned that it could export its output and stop selling petroleum products to importers and marketers.
Addressing the renewed debate over higher fuel imports, Yusuf said import approvals should be based openly on confirmed gaps in local supply. He is chief executive of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise and a former director-general of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
He argued that indiscriminate permits undermine investment, employment, foreign-exchange preservation, industrial development and Nigeria’s energy security. In his view, regulatory decisions must be transparent, predictable and aligned with the country’s goals for domestic refining and industrialisation.
Yusuf proposed that NMDPRA determine and publish supply deficits for each petroleum product before authorising significant import volumes. He also urged the regulator to give capable local refiners a reasonable chance to satisfy confirmed demand, limit permits to the measured remaining shortfall and set a clear validity period for each licence.
He further called for the monthly publication of data covering import permits, cargoes landed and products evacuated into the domestic market. Yusuf stressed that his proposal was not intended to create a monopoly or impose blanket protection, but to establish consistent, rules-based oversight that promotes fair competition, safeguards consumers and strengthens domestic productive capacity.
