The newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Saidu Mohammed, has assured that the agency under his leadership will prioritise the protection of investments in local refineries.
Mr Mohammed gave the assurance on Thursday while appearing before the Senate Committees on Petroleum (Upstream), Petroleum (Downstream), and Gas for screening.
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He appeared alongside Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
Both nominees were appointed on Thursday after their predecessors, Farouk Ahmed and Gbenga Komolafe, resigned from office.
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Protecting local refining investments
Nigeria’s petroleum sector has faced persistent challenges over the years.
The President and Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has repeatedly accused regulatory agencies of undermining local refineries by issuing import licences for petroleum products.
Mr Dangote had accused Mr Ahmed of corruption and abuse of office, alleging collusion with international traders and petroleum importers to weaken local refining.
He also alleged that Mr Ahmed was living beyond his legitimate means, claiming that four of his children were enrolled in secondary schools in Switzerland at costs running into several million dollars, raising concerns about possible conflicts of interest and regulatory integrity in the downstream petroleum sector.
During his screening, Mr Mohammed said the NMDPRA would take deliberate steps to protect local refiners in order to meet domestic demand and expand exports.
“I can tell you as a regulator, first of all, what should be your primary aim is national interest. If it is deemed necessary to fill a deficit, we must report; If not, we must do what Distinguished Adams Oshiomhole said. We have to protect our local investment, because with local refining…we have been yearning for it,” he said.
He recalled a period when Nigeria’s refineries met domestic demand and even exported refined products.
“There was a time in this country when the three local refineries were meeting our demands. As a matter of fact, the fourth refinery that came into Port Harcourt was for export, and that’s why we built the Bonny Export Terminal. The product was supposed to be exported and behold we started exporting,” he said.
Mr Mohammed warned that failure to protect local refiners could lead to the collapse of the sector.
“So really, that is the joy – meet your local requirements and export, certainly. But at the same time, we have to protect our local investment; otherwise, we see them go the way the textiles went. If I’m not mistaken,” he said.
Product quality and testing infrastructure
The NMDPRA chief also pledged to address recurring quality issues in refined petroleum products.
“Quality is key in what you do. You cannot just be selling products into cars or trucks without knowing what the quality is. We have to establish quality. We have to enforce that. But you cannot enforce quality when you don’t have a laboratory. You cannot rely on that particular,” he said.
He said that establishing functional testing laboratories would be among his immediate priorities.
“So, my first assignment, of course, is to look at what is available in the authority. And if there is no laboratory, it will become a key investment that we must immediately do,” he said.
Stakeholder collaboration and digitisation
On her part, Mrs Eyesan assured lawmakers that the NUPRC would strengthen collaboration with stakeholders to resolve industry challenges.
She said stakeholder engagement had helped her address complex issues in previous roles.
“I think one of the core pillars for me is that we must collaborate, not just with the service, but we must have effective stakeholder collaboration. In my achievements, it was one of the things that enabled us to move forward. Identify who the key stakeholders are, we sit together and then look at our pain points and go through the issues and come up with solutions,” she said.
Mrs Eyesan also emphasised the need for enabling laws, regulations, and policies, noting that collaboration with the National Assembly would help steer the industry in the right direction.
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“We must sit with our stakeholders and come up with enabling laws, regulations, and policies to guide the industry. And I believe working with critical stakeholders like the Senate, we can channel the industry in the right direction. As I said in my introduction, we have huge opportunities that we are leaving on the table,” she said.
She further pledged to digitise regulatory operations.
“We must also digitise our operations because without real numbers, you don’t know what you are dealing with. You must analyse real numbers. And if you don’t have a digitised system in today’s operation, you are losing money, you are wasting money. So these are areas that we must focus on, digitisation,” she added.
