Popular economist and financial analyst, Muda Yusuf, has urged the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA to publish the country’s fuel supply gap before granting import licences to petroleum marketers, in a move he said would help revive Dangote Refinery.
Yusuf disclosed this in a statement at the weekend amid a 43.3 percent rise in petrol imports.
Recall that NMDPRA fact sheet data showed that the country’s petrol imports rose by 43.3 percent despite Dangote Refinery’s capacity to meet domestic supply.
Dangote Refinery had blamed NMDPRA’s persistent issuance of petrol import licences for the rise in Nigeria’s fuel imports.
The mega refinery had also threatened to export and halt sales of its petroleum products to petrol importers and marketers.
Reacting to concerns over rising fuel imports, Yusuf, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise and former Director-General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Nigeria’s import approvals must be tied transparently to verified domestic supply gaps.
According to Yusuf, indiscriminate import licensing weakens investment, jobs, foreign-exchange conservation, industrialisation and national energy security.
“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 systematic, rules-based regulation that makes competition fair, protects consumers and supports domestic productive capacity,” he stated.
