Petrol importation without proven deficit threatens Nigeria’s energy security, industrialization push, CPPE warns

The organisation, in a policy brief signed by Muda Yusuf, chief executive officer, said that Nigeria has reached a point where downstream policy must shift decisively from managing chronic import dependence to building a competitive domestic refining ecosystem.

According to the Nigerian Midstream, Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), the average PMS imports increased from 5.9 million litres per day in May 2026 to 18.1 million litres per day in June, and further to 19.7 million litres per day in July.

Yusuf explained that Nigeria requires a rules-based policy regime, in which efficient domestic production receives a fair opportunity to serve the Nigerian market, and imports close only demonstrable gaps, while consumers remain protected and competition is preserved.

“The credibility of Nigeria’s industrialisation agenda will be judged partly by whether regulators align their day-to-day decisions with these national objectives,” Muda said.

“The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) believes that Petroleum-product imports should function as a transparent supply-gap instrument, not as a parallel market that displaces adequate domestic production.

” Where local refiners can supply products of acceptable quality, quantity and competitive market price, indiscriminate import licensing weakens investment, jobs, foreign-exchange conservation, industrialisation and national energy security,” he added.

For Yusuf, the concern is not with imports required to close a genuine and independently verified shortfall but where import permits are issued without a transparent demonstration that domestic refiners cannot meet the relevant demand at acceptable standards and competitive market terms.

This distinction, he said, is central to the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

Citing sections 317(8)–(9) of the PIA, Yusuf said Nigeria can only contemplate petroleum-product import licensing in the context of a domestic supply shortfall. He stressed that regulatory discretion should therefore be exercised transparently, predictably and consistently with the country’s domestic-refining and industrialisation objectives.

“NMDPRA should publish a product-by-product supply-gap determination before approving material import volumes; give qualified domestic refiners a fair opportunity to meet verified demand; restrict import permits to the quantified residual gap and a defined validity period; and publish monthly permit, landing and domestic-evacuation data.

” This is not a call for monopoly or blanket protection. It is a call for a systematic, rules-based regulation that makes competition fair, protects consumers and supports domestic productive capacity.

“A deregulated market does not imply regulatory indifference to the structure of supply. The regulator must reconcile consumer protection and supply security with the PIA’s domestic-supply framework. Where domestic supply is genuinely adequate, import permits can suppress refinery offtake, weaken utilisation rates and transfer demand, income and employment abroad.

“NMDPRA’s mandate requires more than licensing and supply monitoring. It should create predictable rules that encourage investment across refining, storage, pipelines, marine logistics and distribution. Frequent or unexplained reversals in import policy increase uncertainty and raise the risk premium on downstream investment,” he said.