The Federal Government of Nigeria under President Bola Tinubu has issued license to six companies to import and distribute petroleum product, ending the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) monopoly as the sole importer of the product into Nigeria.
The development was announced by the Managing Director of Nigeria Mainstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDRA), Farouk Ahmed, who at the State House, Abuja, said that government has approved six new companies to import petroleum products into the country.
Ahmed added that, in addition to the six, several other companies would be issued license to import petroleum product in the future.
The Managing Director denied the reports that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) had issued license to Dangote Group to import petroleum products into the country, noting that NNPCL has no powers to grant approval to any company for importation of petrol.
“There are six companies who said they want to import fuel in July. Of course, all the others may import in December in November, or anytime but those who expressed interest to bring in fuel in July there were six of them as of this morning.
“The beauty of it is that there are interests which means that they have been able to have access to foreign exchange in order to import.
“Now, as we go along, of course, we’ll be briefing you on the progress or the achievements so far, but the important thing is that NNPC has 30 days fuel sufficiency, so we do not anticipate any gap in supply or in distribution,” Ahmed said.
Meanwhile, in a different issue, the Special Adviser to the President on Revenue, Zacchaeus Adedeji, leading government officials in an interaction with shipping stakeholders, at the State House, Abuja, stated that Nigeria would act immediately to stop vessels move in and out of the country.
After the meeting, Adedeji, who spoke with the press, assured Nigerians that any step government was taking in respect to the oil and gas industry was in good faith, emphasizing the agreement government made with ship owners as critical to prevent withdrawal of vessels to ensure uninterrupted supply and disruption of petrol.
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