Africa’s richest man and CEO of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, pushed the Nigerian government to ban fuel imports as part of its ‘Nigeria First’ policy this week, underscoring the poor quality of imported goods when compared to domestically produced alternatives, according to OilPrice.

“The Nigeria First policy announced by His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu, should apply to the petroleum product sector and all other sectors,” the CEO noted, adding: “We are now facing increased dumping of cheap, often toxic petroleum products, some of which are blended to substandard levels that would never be allowed in Europe or North America”.

Dangote continued to highlight issues with cheap Russian oil, which is used to produce some of the fuel entering Nigerian borders. This has continuously undercut local refiners due to being cheaper than locally produced petroleum products, according to OilPrice.

Dangote’s comments were made at an industry event – and referenced a government initiative launched earlier this year that prevented government agencies from purchasing foreign goods if the same goods could be bought domestically.

A key factor in Dangote’s complaints is his 650,000 barrel per day (bpd) Dangote refinery, which was constructed to reduce the country’s reliance on imports. Despite this, marketers have continued to purchase fuel from abroad due to the trade’s lucrative nature.

The plant first began operations in 2024 and is expected to reach full capacity – or even 700,000 bpd – at some point next year, according to an announcement by the refinery that revealed plans to upgrade existing infrastructure last week.

With its huge capacity, Dangote has struggled to source crude from Nigeria’s state-owned oil company the Nigerian National Petroleum Co. Ltd. (NNPCL), instead opting to rely on mostly US crude in the first quarter of this year.

Despite purchasing foreign crude to operate, any imported fuel acts as a direct threat to Dangote’s facility – with the CEO looking to cover all of Nigeria’s domestic fuel consumption in the near future with the plant. With such a large capacity, an additional amount of fuel will also likely be available for export – adding to Nigeria’s already strong position as a net exporter, with 1.35bn litres of petrol shipped abroad in the last 50 days, according to OilPrice.