Nigerian marketers push for N800/liter petrol, seek import licenses amid government efforts to reduce prices

This comes as the Federal Government intensifies efforts to lower petrol costs, holding a stakeholders' meeting with major operators in the downstream petroleum sector, including representatives from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery. The meeting, which included the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria IPMAN, and other industry bodies, addressed the disparity between falling global crude oil prices and persistently high domestic petrol prices. Abubakar Maigandi, National President of IPMAN, urged the government to allow independent marketers to import products directly and to support local refineries, stating that increased competition would drive down prices.

He assured Nigerians that independent marketers are prepared to reduce prices, noting a current nationwide reduction of N125 per liter. The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Oil, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, expressed concern that current petrol prices do not reflect international crude oil prices and warned marketers against using profits from previously acquired expensive fuel inventories to justify high prices. He emphasized that the benefits of lower replacement costs must be passed on to consumers and called for the s