Six companies have been granted licenses by the industry regulator, the Nigeria Mainstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), to import premium motor spirit (PMS) or petrol into the nation as of July.
This is part of the ongoing full deregulation of the downstream sector and is in accordance with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.
The only importer of the good up until this point has been the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
No person or business is allowed to import more than 30% of the nation’s entire domestic demand for gasoline, according to the PIA.
Farouk Ahmed, the head of the NMDPRA, did not name the companies, but he was adamant that the Dangote Group, which recently opened its refinery, is not one of them.