Business
CPPE warns against unrestricted fuel imports
The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has warned against growing calls for unbridled importation of petroleum products. It argued that such a policy could undermine Nigeria’s industrialisation drive, weaken domestic refining investments, and deepen economic vulnerability.
In a statement issued on Sunday, CPPE’s Chief Executive Officer, Muda Yusuf, said the debate around petroleum imports went beyond fuel supply and touches on the broader issues of economic sovereignty, industrial development, and macroeconomic resilience.
The advice comes amid an ongoing legal dispute between Dangote Refinery and the federal government following the issuance of fresh fuel import licences to major petroleum marketers by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
On 15 May, the local refinery filed a fresh lawsuit against Nigeria’s Attorney-General, seeking the reversal of fuel import licences issued to oil marketers and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd).
In response, NNPC Ltd accused Dangote Refinery of attempting to dominate Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector through the legal action challenging the import licences granted to competing marketers.
The national oil company maintained that existing laws allow import licences to firms holding local refining licences or those with proven experience in international crude oil and petroleum products trading.
Advocacy
The CPPE in its statement on Sunday said no country had achieved industrial greatness through excessive dependence on imports.
“CPPE is deeply concerned by the growing advocacy for unbridled importation of petroleum products at a time when Nigeria should be consolidating domestic refining capacity and accelerating its industrialisation journey.
“This debate goes far beyond petroleum products. It speaks to the very architecture of Nigeria’s economic philosophy, the future of industrialisation, the resilience of the macroeconomy, and ultimately, the preservation of the country’s economic sovereignty. No nation has ever imported its way to industrial greatness,” the group said.
CPPE argued that Nigeria’s long-standing dependence on imported fuel had contributed significantly to pressure on foreign reserves, exchange rate instability, fiscal leakages, and the collapse of local refineries.
The group warned that recreating conditions that encouraged import dependence could reverse recent economic reforms and destabilise the foreign exchange market, citing Nigeria’s expenses on petroleum imports in the past.
“At the height of the fuel subsidy era, Nigeria spent trillions of naira annually subsidising imported fuel, effectively transferring national wealth, jobs, industrial opportunities, and value creation to foreign economies and their local collaborators. The country was also spending over $10 billion annually on petroleum product imports,” it said.
The think-tank maintained that self-reliance in petroleum refining should be viewed as economic pragmatism rather than isolationism, stressing that every serious economy protects its strategic sectors.
CPPE also referenced the USA, China, and the European countries that embraced industrial policy and supported manufacturing competitiveness to transform their respective economies, saying Nigeria should not be a destination for imported goods.
“The consequences were severe and far-reaching: persistent pressure on the exchange rate, widening trade deficits, weak industrial competitiveness, massive fiscal leakages, investor uncertainty and macroeconomic fragility,” the organisation stated.
“The United States is deploying tariffs and industrial subsidies to support manufacturing competitiveness. China aggressively protects strategic industries. Europe is increasingly embracing industrial policy intervention. India continues to deepen domestic manufacturing through its ‘Make in India’ agenda.
“Industrialisation has never been built on extreme liberalisation. No nation develops by turning itself into an attractive destination for imported goods,” the group said.
The organisation also defended the need for strategic policy support for local refining investments, particularly the Dangote Refinery and modular refineries across the country.
“Nigeria has just witnessed one of the most consequential industrial investments in Africa through the establishment of the Dangote Refinery, alongside growing investments in modular refineries across the country. These investments should ordinarily be strategically supported, celebrated, and strengthened.
“Instead, there appears to be mounting pressure for unrestricted importation of refined petroleum products, a policy orientation capable of undermining domestic refining investments and discouraging future industrial commitments. This presents a troubling contradiction in policy signalling,” the think-tank said.
Unrestricted competition
CPPE argued that calls for unrestricted competition between imported and locally produced petroleum products ignore the structural disadvantages confronting Nigerian manufacturers, including poor infrastructure, high energy costs, elevated interest rates, and foreign exchange volatility.
“Competition can only be meaningful where production occurs under broadly comparable macroeconomic, structural, and regulatory conditions. In the absence of such parity, what is often presented as ‘competition’ merely becomes the institutionalisation of structural disadvantage against domestic industries.
“Local enterprises should not be subjected to destructive competition under profoundly asymmetric conditions. Such an approach would not promote efficiency; it would undermine industrialisation, weaken domestic investment, erode jobs, compromise economic sovereignty, and deepen import dependence,” CPPE said.
The organisation further noted that indiscriminate liberalisation had contributed to the collapse of several once-thriving Nigerian industries, including tyre manufacturing firms, textile mills, battery producers, and automobile assembly plants.
According to CPPE, the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area could also become disruptive if deliberate steps are not taken to strengthen domestic competitiveness.
Monopoly concerns
On concerns over monopoly in the refining sector, the organisation dismissed claims that Dangote Refinery posed a monopolistic threat.
CPPE said the Dangote Refinery should be acknowledged for undertaking an extraordinary industrial investment at a scale unprecedented in Africa without collapsing state-owned refineries.
“Attempts to portray Dangote Refinery as a monopolistic threat are simplistic, fundamentally flawed, and grossly unfair. The refinery did not prevent other investors from entering the sector. It did not cause the collapse of state-owned refineries. It simply undertook an extraordinary industrial investment at a scale unprecedented in Africa.
“Scale creates competitiveness. Scale lowers unit costs. Scale deepens value chains. Scale strengthens economic resilience. Scale should not be criminalised,” CPPE stated.
Industrial policies
The group concluded by urging the government to pursue consistent industrial policies that support domestic production, reduce import dependence, and strengthen local value chains.
READ ALSO: NNPC accuses Dangote refinery of seeking fuel monopoly in court filing
“Nigeria cannot achieve meaningful industrialisation without deliberate and sustained support for domestic production. Industrial transformation requires: strategic protection, policy consistency, strong domestic value chains, support for local investors, and a reduction in import dependence.
“No economy becomes prosperous by importing what it can produce domestically. The future of Nigeria’s economic resilience lies in production, refining, manufacturing, and value addition, not in the perpetuation of import dependence,” CPPE added.
President Bola Tinubu has challenged Nigerian banks to shift their focus from financing the government to providing affordable credit to businesses and productive sectors of the economy to drive investment, production and job creation.
Mr Tinubu, who was represented by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, made the call at the 19th Annual Banking and Finance Conference of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) on Tuesday.
The President said while the government’s economic reforms had restored macroeconomic stability and improved investor confidence, the next phase must focus on converting those gains into investment, production, jobs and improved living standards.
“The current phase of our reform journey is accelerating the conversion of stability into investment, investment into production, production into jobs, and growth into improved living standards,” he said.
He urged banks to move “from intermediation to transformation”, arguing that the performance of financial institutions should no longer be assessed only by balance-sheet growth, profitability and shareholder returns.
According to him, the critical question should be what the financial system is doing for the real economy.
“A resilient banking system cannot assist indefinitely where businesses cannot obtain affordable credit. Manufacturing that is struggling cannot expand, and millions of productive MSMEs remain outside the formal financial system,” Tinubu said.
He said the government was therefore expanding the architecture of guarantees, risk-sharing, blended finance and credit enhancements, with a National Credit Guarantee Company at its core, to crowd in private capital and support productive investment.
The Nigerian leader said success should increasingly be measured by how much productive capital government policies catalyse, rather than simply by how much the government spends.
Banks must finance growth
The President also said the recently concluded bank recapitalisation must result in more than larger balance sheets, stressing that it should translate into increased capital formation in the real economy.
“It must translate into capital formation in the real economy, financing Nigerian businesses as they expand across Africa and pursue our ambition of a $1 trillion economy,” he said.
“A bigger bank that does not finance a more productive economy is a suboptimal outcome.”
He also called for broader financial inclusion, saying access to bank accounts does not automatically translate into access to finance.
He said the financial system should enable small businesses and entrepreneurs to obtain working capital based on viable cash flows rather than collateral they may not possess.
“We must build a system that finances potential and opportunities rather than quick gains for the privileged,” he said.
Mr Tinubu further called for a transition away from a financial system where attractive returns on government securities make lending to productive businesses less compelling.
He said that improving fiscal conditions would allow the government to create more space for private-sector credit progressively.
The President described the desired outcome as a “virtuous cycle” in which stronger fiscal discipline reduces pressure on government borrowing, lower inflation lowers interest rates, and cheaper capital stimulates investment and production.
He added that increased production would generate more jobs, incomes and tax revenues, further strengthening fiscal sustainability.
“That is how gains from reform begin to compound at scale, and the financial sector must be ready for that transition,” he said.
Tinubu also identified technology, long-term capital and trust as key pillars of a resilient financial system, warning that greater digitalisation would bring increased cybersecurity risks.
He said Nigeria would need to deepen its capital markets, insurance, pension, and asset management industries to mobilise domestic savings and foreign capital for long-term investment.
On the broader economy, the President said Nigeria’s GDP grew by 4.43 per cent in the second quarter of 2026, while headline inflation had eased to 15.43 per cent and external reserves had crossed $54 billion.
He said the improvements showed that “stability has returned” and “credibility is rising”, but cautioned that macroeconomic stability should not be mistaken for economic prosperity.
“Stability is a foundation; prosperity is a destination,” Mr Tinubu said.
“The good news”
In his remarks, Dele Alabi, President/Chairman of Council, CIBN, said the good news is that certain policies implemented in the past couple of years are beginning to yield fruit.
For example, he argued that within Nigeria’s financial system, 33 banks met the revised minimum capital requirements, raising ₦4.65 trillion in new capital, providing a further buffer against domestic and external shocks.
READ ALSO: Credit bypassing Nigeria’s job creators — World Bank Official
“Likewise, recent indicators show that these efforts are beginning to rebuild confidence. As announced by Moody’s Ratings on 28 August 2026, Nigeria’s outlook was changed from stable to positive while the sovereign rating was affirmed at B3,” he said.
Additionally, the CIBN president explained that according to FTSE Russell’s March 2026 Semi-Annual Country Classification Review, Nigeria will be reclassified from Unclassified to Frontier market status, effective 21 September 2026.
“To top all this off, the icing on the cake is that according to the latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics’ Q2 2026 Gross Domestic Product Report, real GDP grew by 4.43 per cent year-on-year in Q2 2026, up from 3.89 per cent in Q1 2026,” Mr Alabi said.
He noted that collectively, these are important signals of stronger macroeconomic stability, improved investor confidence, and the prospect of broader access to global capital.
He explained that the true test is whether stronger fundamentals translate into lower living costs, more jobs, higher real incomes, affordable credit, reliable public services and reduced poverty.
“Macroeconomic progress must therefore be felt at the micro level – in households, small businesses and the daily lives of ordinary Nigerians,” Mr Alabi said.
He said it is for this reason that the theme of this year’s Conference is sound, and as Nassim Nicholas Taleb aptly observed in his book Antifragile, “Wind extinguishes a candle and energises fire.”
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