Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government has disclosed plans to approve additional import licenses for oil marketers in the country to ensure consumers have options.
On Monday, the Nigeria Mainstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDRA) said six new companies had got approval to bring the commodity into Nigeria.
The Managing Director of the agency, Mr Farouk Ahmed, confirmed this to state correspondents at the Presidential Villa, adding that apart from the approved six, several companies applied for a permit to import petroleum in due course.
Mr Ahmed also debunked insinuations that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited had given approval to Dangote Group to import petroleum, saying that the organisation has no powers to give such approval.
The NMDPRA managing director further noted that there are several companies that applied for fuel importation permits and anyone can apply for importation to get access to the port as the authority is open to all those interested in importing.
Mr Ahmed said, “There are six companies who said they want to import fuel in July. Of course, all the others may import in December or anytime, but for those who expressed interest in bringing 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 of fuel sufficiency, so we do not anticipate any gap in supply or in distribution.”
Recall that President Bola Tinubu removed the fuel subsidy regime as the 2023 budget did not make provisions for it beyond June 30.
Mr Tinubu stated that funds for subsidies would be diverted to other things like public infrastructure, education, health care and jobs.
With this, it means importers will set the prices they sell the goods when it comes ashore.
