Nigeria’s fuel retailers are calling for stronger enforcement against anti-competitive pricing as petrol costs rise across the country, arguing that tighter market oversight could help bring pump prices down.
What happened
- The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) and the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) urged the Federal Government to intervene. PETROAN National President Billy Gillis-Harry made the appeal in an interview on Tuesday.
- Petrol prices increased over the previous two weeks, reaching between N1,310 and N1,345 per litre, compared with an earlier range of N1,210 to N1,275. The increase came as Brent crude climbed to $95 a barrel on Wednesday.
- Gillis-Harry said the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) should intensify action against pricing practices that restrict competition.
Call for market oversight
He said deregulation did not remove the government’s responsibility to conduct regular checks on what constitutes a fair and competitive price. Those reviews, he said, should examine production costs and other inputs alongside the final prices charged to consumers.
Gillis-Harry said NMDPRA’s work required close public attention, while the FCCPC needed to enforce competition rules across the entire fuel supply chain. Because petrol costs influence virtually every part of the economy, including transportation, he said regulators should treat the sector as a matter with broad consumer and economic consequences.
He also appealed to the government to ensure that transport operators adjust their charges when fuel prices move in either direction. Fares should fall when petrol becomes cheaper, rather than remaining fixed indefinitely after an earlier increase.
He added that regulators should maintain continuous scrutiny of refiners, depot operators, logistics providers and intermediaries. In his view, monitoring those participants consistently is necessary to prevent excessive margins and ensure that changes in supply costs are reflected in prices paid by consumers.
