NMDPRA Resumes Issuance of Fuel Import Permits, Six Firms to Deliver 600,000mt

*Oil price surge, reforms draw fresh investors’ attention to Nigeria

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has ramped up the issuance of fuel import licences, equating to a total volume of 600,000 metric tonnes, or roughly a quarter of the country’s domestic consumption.
The easing of the restriction on foreign fuel imports is coming amid a recent presidential directive to remove the NMDPRA’s erstwhile Chief Executive, Saidu Mohammed, and replace him with Rabiu Umar, an outgoing Sales and Marketing Manager at Dangote Industries Limited (DIL).

While supporters of continued fuel imports insist on supply security, competition, and the need to shield the Nigerian market from monopolistic tendencies, those opposed to it contend that fuel imports are economically damaging and undermine the rationale for Aliko Dangote investing $20 billion in domestic refining.

But citing eight local sources with knowledge of the matter, S&P Global reported that the Authority granted six Nigerian marketers with new petrol import licences on May 6, worth 600,000 metric tonnes.
The move is a significant policy departure from recent market norms, which have seen the NMDPRA heavily regulate foreign arrivals of Nigeria’s main motor fuel in order to support the country’s new domestic refinery owned by Aliko Dangote.

After an initial clampdown in October 2025, the NMDPRA issued six companies with limited petrol import licences in late March 2025, S&P said, but left them to expire at the end of the first quarter, leaving uncertainty over its future policy trajectory.

In its latest licensing round, the Authority has continued to restrict the number of companies authorised to import foreign petrol, but has substantially increased the allowances to cover more than triple the previously approved volume.

According to a list shared by a well-placed market source and various West African traders, the licensed companies, which include Matrix, AA Rano, AYM Shafa, Nipco, Pinnacle and Bono, will be authorised to import between 60,000-150,000 mt of petrol, subject to the permit type, the report added.

Such entities will typically buy products from the nearby offshore Lome market, where larger international trading houses and oil companies will send the fuel and load it onto smaller ships. None of the marketers nor the NMDPRA were available for official comment.

Mohammed, the immediate past CEO of the NMDPRA, was suddenly removed days ago after just four months in office, while Umar’s appointment was confirmed by the Senate on May 7. It’s unclear if Umar has officially assumed duty.

According to the latest NMDPRA figures, the Dangote refinery ran at 94 per cent of its capacity in March and produced enough fuel to cover the country’s entire domestic petrol consumption. However, supplies to the local market fell.

S&P Global Commodities at Sea data showed that Nigeria imported 60,000 b/d, or 218,000 mt, of petrol in April, more than double March’s all-time low but still less than half of the 2026 average. The NMDPRA has, since early this year, said it suspended the issuance of import licences.

In an interview at the Dangote refinery, the country’s only working commercial-scale facility, its Chief Executive, David Bird, said the refinery was poised to fully cater to the local market, but expressed concerns over the regulator’s ability to police the arrival of substandard fuel products.

“The only reason that could be undercut is through inferior or sanctioned products. We are more than happy to compete on a level playing field from a product quality perspective at import parity pricing,” S&P Global quoted him as saying.

Meanwhile, Nigerian assets are rallying across stocks, bonds and the currency as investor confidence builds in President Bola Tinubu’s economic agenda.

The nation’s stock benchmark has climbed 66 per cent this year in dollar terms, the best performance after South Korea’s Kospi out of 92 global indexes tracked by Bloomberg. That took its advance over the past 12 months close to 200 per cent. Local-currency government bonds have outpaced most emerging-market peers, while the naira is the second-best-performing African currency, lagging only to Zambia’s kwacha, Bloomberg reported.

Tinubu’s reset of the Nigerian economy included scrapping the costly fuel subsidies and multiple exchange rates that had left the currency overvalued and deterred investors. Economic growth will accelerate to 4.1 per cent this year, compared with 3.3 per cent when Tinubu came into office three years ago, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It also earned the country a credit-rating upgrade from Moody’s Ratings and Fitch Global Ratings in 2025.

With more credible economic policies in place, investors are returning to Nigeria’s capital markets. The rise in oil prices since the start of the Iran war has provided a budget windfall as the country relies on crude exports for about one third of government revenue.

Foreigners bought N181.8 billion ($133 million) of Nigerian equities in March, up from N72.3 billion the previous month, according to the latest exchange data, even as the Middle East conflict sparked a global stock selloff.

“Nigeria is transitioning from a credibility discount to an execution story,” said Romain Bordenave, an emerging-markets portfolio manager at Edmond de Rothschild Suisse SA. “The Iran conflict is definitely pushing Nigeria as an African darling,” Bordenave added.

With a $104 billion market capitalisation, Nigeria’s market is now bigger than New Zealand’s, and in the same league as Portugal, Ireland and Morocco, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Among the best-performing shares this year are companies that benefit from economic growth: Bua Cement Plc is up 140 per cent, Zenith Bank Plc has climbed 104 per cent and MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, a mobile-phone provider, has gained 57 per cent. Oil and gas exploration company Seplat Energy Plc has almost doubled, while rival Aradel Holdings Plc has soared 172 per cent.

The nation’s stock market received a boost when FTSE Russell recently announced the reclassification of Nigeria to frontier-market status with effect from September. Inclusion in the gauge would attract demand from index-tracker funds.

The country’s stock market is also getting a vote of confidence from Africa’s richest man, Dangote, who plans to sell about 10 per cent of his oil-refinery company in Nigeria, with additional listings on other African exchanges. The refinery has an estimated market valuation of between $25 billion and $45 billion.

“The FTSE reclassification is very positive for the Nigerian market,” said Samuel Sule, the Chief Executive of Renaissance Capital Africa. “Many global institutional investors track the index and as such, inclusion will attract increased market volume and activity. The Dangote refinery IPO is expected to deepen the market further.”

Still, Nigeria’s economy isn’t entirely protected from the risks of the Iran war. Despite Nigeria being the continent’s biggest oil producer, local fuel costs have climbed as international prices rose. The agricultural sector will take a hit from higher fertiliser prices, pushing up food costs and threatening a slowdown in inflation that took the consumer-price index to a five-year low in February, Bloomberg said.