Nigeria spent N952.15bn on imported Premium Motor Spirit in the second quarter of 2026, despite growing domestic refining capacity and an escalating dispute between the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and fuel importers over the continued inflow of foreign petrol, The PUNCH reports.
An analysis of the National Bureau of Statistics’ Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics report for Q2 2026, published on Monday, showed that petrol imports rose almost 11-fold from N87.40bn in the first three months of the year.
The increase means the country’s PMS import bill jumped by N864.75bn, or 989.4 per cent, between the first and second quarters of 2026.
Put differently, Nigeria spent about 10.9 times more on imported petrol between April and June than it did between January and March.
The NBS ranked “Motor Spirit Ordinary” as Nigeria’s biggest imported commodity in Q2, ahead of crude petroleum, durum wheat, used diesel or semi-diesel vehicles and motorcycles.
