By Seun Ibiyemi
The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise has defended the Dangote Refinery against growing calls for unrestricted importation of petroleum products, warning that such a policy could undermine Nigeria’s industrialisation ambitions and weaken local refining investments.
In a statement titled “Import Liberalisation and the Risks of Deindustrialisation in Nigeria,” the Chief Executive Officer of CPPE, Muda Yusuf, described the Dangote Refinery as one of the most consequential industrial investments in Africa that deserves strategic policy support rather than regulatory uncertainty.
According to him, increasing advocacy for unrestricted fuel imports at a time Nigeria is expanding domestic refining capacity sends troubling signals to investors and could discourage future industrial commitments.
“What message are we sending to investors if a multi-billion-dollar refinery investment of continental significance is confronted with regulatory uncertainty and policy headwinds?” the statement queried.
Yusuf argued that the pathway to healthy competition in the downstream petroleum sector should be through encouraging more domestic refining investments instead of promoting imports.
He noted that the Dangote Refinery did not prevent other investors from entering the sector but rather undertook an extraordinary investment at an unprecedented scale in Africa.
He dismissed claims portraying the refinery as a monopolistic threat, insisting that scale helps lower production costs, strengthen value chains, deepen competitiveness, and improve economic resilience.
“Scale should not be criminalised,” the group stated.
Yusuf further warned that excessive dependence on imported petroleum products had previously weakened Nigeria’s economy through pressure on foreign reserves, exchange rate instability, fiscal leakages, and the collapse of domestic refining capacity.
He maintained that unrestricted import liberalisation could recreate the same economic distortions Nigeria experienced during the fuel subsidy era, when the country spent over $10 billion annually importing petroleum products.
According to him, domestic refining offers significant economic benefits including energy security, foreign exchange conservation, job creation, industrial linkages, and improved macroeconomic stability.
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He also stressed that Nigerian manufacturers and refiners face structural disadvantages such as high energy costs, poor infrastructure, multiple taxation, logistics bottlenecks, and elevated financing costs, unlike foreign competitors operating in more supportive environments.
Yusuf warned that exposing local industries to unrestricted imports under such conditions would amount to institutionalising structural disadvantage against domestic production.
He recalled that indiscriminate import liberalisation contributed to the collapse of several Nigerian industries including textile mills, tyre manufacturing firms, automobile assembly plants, and electronics companies.
He therefore urged the Federal Government to maintain policy consistency and provide fiscal and strategic support for domestic refining, insisting that Nigeria’s long-term economic resilience depends on strengthening local production and reducing import dependence.
