The Centre for the Promotion of Public Enterprise (CPPE) has called for a decisive shift away from Nigeria’s dependence on imported Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol, towards a competitive domestic refining system.
The organisation said the move was necessary to address rising pump prices, conserve foreign exchange and strengthen Nigeria’s energy security.
In a statement, CPPE Chief Executive Officer, Dr Muda Yusuf, said petroleum-product imports should only be used to bridge genuine supply gaps rather than operate as a parallel market that undermines domestic production.
He warned that indiscriminate import licensing, where local refineries could supply products of acceptable quality and competitive prices, could weaken investment, job creation, foreign-exchange conservation and industrialisation.
Yusuf said Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector was at a critical transition point, with the expansion of large-scale private refining capacity reducing the structural justification for continued import dependence.
He cited regulatory figures showing that average PMS imports rose from 5.9 million litres per day in May 2026 to 18.1 million litres per day in June, representing a 206.8 per cent increase, before rising further to 19.7 million litres per day in July.
He said imports accounted for 43.3 per cent of July PMS receipts, compared with 12.4 per cent in May.
“The concern is not with imports required to close a genuine and independently verified shortfall,” Yusuf said.
He explained that imports remained useful in situations such as refinery outages, seasonal increases in demand, quality gaps and strategic-stock replenishment.
However, he said import licences should not be issued without clear evidence that domestic refiners could not meet demand at acceptable standards and competitive prices.
“This distinction is central to the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA). Sections 317(8)–(9) contemplate petroleum-product import licensing in the context of a domestic supply shortfall,” he said.
Yusuf urged regulators to operate transparently and consistently with Nigeria’s domestic refining and industrialisation objectives.
“Nigeria has reached a point where downstream policy must shift decisively from managing chronic import dependence to building a competitive domestic refining ecosystem,” he said.
He warned that allowing imports without a transparent and verified supply shortfall could undermine foreign-exchange conservation, job creation, industrial linkages and energy security.
The CPPE boss called for a rules-based regulatory framework that gives efficient domestic refiners a fair opportunity to supply the Nigerian market, while allowing imports to cover only verified gaps.
He also urged the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to publish product-by-product supply-gap assessments before approving significant import volumes.
According to him, qualified domestic refiners should be given a time-bound opportunity to meet verified demand before any remaining shortfall is allocated for importation.
He also called for the publication of monthly data on import permits, landed volumes and domestic evacuation.
Other recommendations included enforcing “use-it-or-lose-it” provisions on import permits, applying equal regulatory standards, establishing emergency import triggers, securing crude supply for domestic refineries, strengthening competition oversight and adopting an industrialisation impact test.
“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,” Yusuf said.
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