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In 2023, an official of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) publicly called on the federal government to issue more fuel import licences — a position the association has since reversed.
In 2023, Chinedu Anyaso, an official of IPMAN, urged the federal government to grant import licences to more oil marketers, signalling support for the continued importation of petroleum products.
This call came more than a year before the Dangote Refinery commenced petrol production, despite the facility having been inaugurated a month earlier by the late President Muhammadu Buhari.
At the time, Nigeria’s downstream oil sector was yet to be deregulated, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) remained the sole importer of premium motor spirit (PMS).
Call for Competitive Pricing
On June 3, 2023, Anyaso — then chairman of IPMAN’s Enugu Community Depot, South-East Zone — argued that opening up importation would introduce competitive pricing and help resolve persistent fuel shortages.
“Only competitive pricing will address the current problem of PMS and other petroleum products,” he said.
Nearly a year later, on May 3, 2024, IPMAN again appealed to the federal government to fast-track the processing of import licences. The association said the move was necessary to sustain marketers’ access to petroleum products supplied by NNPC.
“Marketers are fast-tracking the processing of their licences to avoid the impending closure of their customer express portals for the purchase of petroleum products from NNPC Retail Limited,” IPMAN said in a statement.
This appeal came four months before NNPCL began lifting refined products from the Dangote Refinery.
No Official Rebuttal — Until Now
Although Anyaso’s comments represented the view of a zonal executive, there were no public records of the IPMAN national leadership distancing itself from or condemning the pro-importation stance at the time.
That position has now changed.
On Thursday, IPMAN formally renounced its earlier support for petrol importation and threw its weight behind domestic refining.
IPMAN Endorses Local Refining
Abubakar Garima, IPMAN’s national president, said continuous fuel importation was no longer acceptable and warned against the indiscriminate issuance of import licences.
“Our position has always been to deepen domestic refining in order to eradicate imports of petroleum products,” Garima said.
“Continuous import is NOT an acceptable parallel business model. Issuing import licences recklessly distorts market dynamics, drains foreign exchange, entrenches poverty, destroys jobs, and discourages potential investors.”
Dangote Factor
Although IPMAN did not explicitly explain the reason for its policy shift, the development follows recent comments by Aliko Dangote, president of Dangote Industries Limited, who accused Farouk Ahmed, the former chief executive officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), of economic sabotage and corruption.
Dangote also invited IPMAN to participate in the distribution of products from his refinery.
Following a meeting with President Bola Tinubu and the publication of allegations detailing financial misconduct, Ahmed subsequently resigned from his position.
