The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has urged the federal government to ensure total transparency in the domestic pricing matrix in line with the Naira-for-Crude policy.
Speaking in a new interview with a Nigerian newspaper, New Telegraph, the Director-General of the manufacturing body, Mr Segun Ajayi-Kadir, said that the government should ensure that local refineries received their full, unhindered daily crude quotas without bureaucratic bottlenecks.
The Naira-for-Crude policy introduced in October 2024 is a strategic initiative to boost local refining and reduce pressure on foreign exchange reserves. The policy directs the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) to sell crude oil to local refineries, notably the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, in Naira, with a focus on stabilising the local currency and reducing reliance on USD for energy imports.
“The federal government should mandate total transparency in the domestic pricing matrix and ensure that local refineries receive their full, unhindered daily crude quotas without bureaucratic bottlenecks.
“The true macroeconomic benefit of this policy must be allowed to materialise for the end consumer and the productive sector,” he told the paper.
According to Mr Ajayi-Kadir, while the implementation of crude oil sales in Naira to local refineries is a landmark structural victory, its current execution requires unmitigated optimisation.
His comments come on the back of recent worries by Dangote Refinery and other smaller refiners not getting enough crude feedstock to serve their structures. This has led to an increase in crude importation from other countries at a premium, which is in turn making fuels expensive.
Analysts note that most of Nigeria’s crude production is already tied to export contracts as the country sells a large share of its oil through long-term agreements with international oil companies via joint ventures. These contracts, often priced in Dollars, are hard to redirect even as local refiners need supply.
He also urged the government to accelerate the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) initiative by heavily subsidising the conversion of commercial and industrial transport fleets as part of the effort to roll out alternative energy aggressively.
He said that logistics accounted for a massive chunk of consumer goods inflation, adding that shifting from Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and diesel to abundant, locally sourced CNG was the ultimate inflation-buster.