Starting in October, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery will play a key role in determining the price of petrol in Nigeria, according to a Bloomberg report.
On Tuesday, Aliko Dangote, Chairman of Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), announced that petrol production had officially commenced at the refinery. Initially, Dangote stated that the pricing of petrol from his plant would be overseen by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
However, a report from Bloomberg on Thursday suggests that the federal government may allow the refinery to set its own petrol prices, potentially shifting away from government regulation.
“Nigeria will allow Dangote to set gasoline prices for petroleum marketers beginning next month,” sources informed Bloomberg. “Petrol marketers will soon be able to purchase directly from the Dangote Refinery.”
Commenting on the development, Temitope Ajayi, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on Media and Publicity, confirmed that Dangote’s refinery will sell petrol at market rates.
“Dangote Refinery, as a profit-driven enterprise, will not sell below market value,” Ajayi told Bloomberg. “It is unlikely that NNPC or the federal government will control prices for a private business. The role of the petroleum regulator will be to ensure product quality and fair pricing, safeguarding citizens from being exploited.”
Meanwhile, Nigerians have been grappling with a prolonged petrol shortage, with no immediate signs of resolution. On September 3, NNPC raised the pump price of petrol to N855 per liter at its retail outlets, causing long queues at filling stations.
Earlier on Thursday, Adedapo Segun, Executive Vice-President of Downstream at NNPC, disclosed that the company plans to supply over 17.6 million barrels of crude oil to the Dangote Refinery between September and October. Segun added that current petrol prices still do not reflect market realities, emphasizing that Nigeria needs to adopt market-based pricing to foster competition.
