The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has urged the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to tie petroleum-product import approvals to transparently verified domestic supply gaps.
The group said petroleum-product imports should serve as a contingency mechanism for genuine supply shortages rather than operate as a parallel market capable of displacing adequate domestic production.
The CPPE made the call in a policy brief released on Sunday by its Chief Executive Officer, Muda Yusuf, titled “Policy Brief on Rising Petroleum-Product Imports and the Future of Domestic Refining.”
The group said that where local refineries can supply products of acceptable quality and quantity at competitive market prices, indiscriminate import licensing could weaken investment, jobs, foreign-exchange conservation, industrialisation, and national energy security.
The position comes amid a recent increase in petrol imports despite the expansion of Nigeria’s domestic refining capacity.
