Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote on Sunday escalated his public dispute with petroleum regulators, accusing them of enabling fuel imports that he says threaten domestic refining, jobs and the country’s energy security.
Speaking at his 650,000-barrel-per-day Dangote refinery in Lagos, Africa’s largest, Dangote said continued imports of refined fuel were undermining local production in Africa’s biggest oil producer.
“You don’t use imports to checkmate domestic potential,” Dangote told reporters, saying the practice was creating jobs abroad while Nigeria struggled to industrialise.
Nigeria relies heavily on imported fuel despite being Africa’s top crude producer, a dependency the Dangote refinery was designed to end.
Dangote called for an official investigation into Farouk Ahmed, head of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), citing concerns over his management of the sector and alleging spending that exceeded legitimate earnings.
Ahmed did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has previously said the Dangote refinery was seeking a monopoly over fuel sales and that its output could not yet meet Nigeria’s daily demand of about 55 million litres.
Last month, the regulator urged President Bola Tinubu to drop proposed restrictions on fuel imports, arguing that domestic refineries could not meet national demand — a claim Dangote disputes.
He accused the regulator of misrepresenting the refinery’s capacity by citing offtake figures rather than actual production data.
Dangote also said the refinery had struggled to secure sufficient crude oil supplies because regulators had failed to enforce a rule prioritising crude supply to domestic refiners before exports.
The facility currently imports about 100 million barrels of crude oil annually, a figure Dangote said could double after expansion due to limited domestic supply.
Despite the dispute, Dangote said he would press ahead with expansion plans, describing the refinery investment as “too big to fail”. He also reiterated plans to list the company on Nigeria’s stock exchange and to pay dividends in US dollars.
Background
Nigeria has long depended on imported petrol and diesel after years of underinvestment left its state-owned refineries largely idle, costing the country billions of dollars annually in foreign exchange.
The Dangote refinery, built at an estimated cost of more than $19 billion, is central to government hopes of achieving fuel self-sufficiency, stabilising the naira and reducing inflation linked to energy imports.
However, the transition has been fraught with regulatory disputes, supply bottlenecks and concerns over market dominance, highlighting broader tensions in Nigeria’s oil sector as authorities seek to balance competition, energy security and private investment.
The clash comes amid wider reforms under the Petroleum Industry Act, which aims to liberalise the sector, attract investment and end decades of inefficiency in Africa’s largest oil-producing nation.
