A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Olisa Agbakoba has urged the federal government to throw open the petroleum market so that competent individuals and organisations can import or refine petroleum products in the country.
According to him, that is the only way to have genuine competition, which will in turn determine the actual price of petroleum products in the country.
He also said there is an urgent need to list the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited on the Nigeria Stock Exchange so that there will be competition in the prices of petroleum in the country.
Speaking in an interview with TheScrutiny on the lingering fuel scarcity in the country, the former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) says it is wrong for the NNPCL to be acting as the regulator of the oil sector when it is just a private company like the Dangote Refinery.
“Are you surprised that this is happening? When you want to create a traffic jam, just erect a barrier where every cars have no option but to slow down. That is what is happening now. We need to open the market”.
“By opening the market, we need to allow everybody who is competent to either have crude they can convert to PMS or to import as long as they meet the requirement of the law. If a man wants to import PMS and the thing lands here at N1,000 but Dangote is refining here and selling for N500, who is going to buy the one that is imported ? Throw the market open. When you do so, eventually, the real price will emerge”.
“NNPC are the ones who determine whether they will buy Dangote crude or not to buy it. They are also the ones who decide who they give allocation to import petroleum products, whereas they are also an operator in the private sector”.
“So, my simple solution is, let the NNPC stay away from anything to do with government regulation. Let it be what the PIA has assigned to it. Why is NNPC buying from Dangote? Is that the function of the NNPC? NNPC should be another private sector company competing with Dangote. If Dangote is selling at N500 per litre NNPC can sell its own fuel at N400 and then we will see competition”.
“In fact, what I want to see the NNPC become is a private sector company listed on the stock exchange so there is competition. What they are doing now is depriving us of competition. When there is no competition, prices could go up”.
