File Photo: Chief Executive Officer, CPPE, Dr. Muda Yusuf
Nigeria risks undermining its domestic refining sector if petroleum-product import permits continue to be issued without proof of a genuine supply shortfall, the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise has warned.
In a policy report on Sunday, the Chief Executive Officer of the CPPE, Dr Muda Yusuf, argued that unchecked import licensing could reverse the gains recorded from the expansion of local refining capacity.
“Where domestic supply is genuinely adequate, import permits can suppress refinery offtake, weaken utilisation rates and transfer demand, income and employment abroad,” Yusuf said.
The CPPE stated that Nigeria’s downstream petroleum market had reached “an important transition point,” noting that large-scale private refining had significantly reduced the structural justification for import dependence.
