LAGOS, Dec 16 – Nigeria’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has escalated his dispute with petroleum regulators, accusing them of enabling fuel imports that he says threaten domestic refining, jobs and national energy security.
Speaking on Sunday at his 650,000-barrel-per-day Dangote Refinery in Lagos, Dangote said continued imports of cheap fuel were being used to undermine Nigeria’s industrial capacity.
“You don’t use imports to checkmate domestic potential,” Dangote told reporters, adding that the practice was exporting jobs while Nigeria struggled to industrialize.
Nigeria is Africa’s largest crude oil producer but remains heavily dependent on imported refined products. Dangote’s refinery, one of the largest single-train refineries in the world, was designed to reverse that dependence and save billions of dollars in foreign exchange.
Dangote called for an official inquiry into Farouk Ahmed, head of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, citing concerns over sector management and allegations of private expenditures exceeding legitimate income. Ahmed did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The regulator has previously argued that the Dangote refinery is seeking a monopoly in petroleum product sales and has said its current output cannot meet Nigeria’s daily fuel demand of about 55 million litres.
Last month, the authority urged President Bola Tinubu to abandon plans to ban refined fuel imports, saying domestic production remains insufficient to meet national consumption needs.
Dangote has disputed that position, accusing the regulator of misrepresenting the refinery’s capacity by focusing on offtake data rather than actual production capability. He also said the refinery has struggled to secure adequate crude supplies because rules prioritising crude delivery to local refiners ahead of exports have not been fully enforced.
The dispute highlights broader tensions within Nigeria’s oil sector as the country seeks to balance energy security, market competition and long-standing reliance on imports.
