By Ada Samson, Abuja
The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, has re-emphasised
the federal government’s strategic objective to enhance value chain optimization in Nigeria’s natural resource sector.
Speaking yesterday at the closing session of the Global Commodity Insights Conference on West African Refined Fuel Market, organised by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) in collaboration with S&P Global, Bagudu underscored the administration’s commitment to domestic refining capacity expansion.
The Minister articulated President Bola Tinubu’s vision to transition Nigeria from a crude oil exporter to a self-sufficient refining hub, ensuring that all domestically produced crude is processed within the country.
This shift, he noted, aligns with broader economic diversification goals aimed at reducing import dependency, stimulating industrial growth, and maximizing in-country value retention.
The Minister acknowledged Nigeria’s historically distorted petroleum pricing framework, which had long discouraged private sector investment and fueled inefficiencies.
However, he highlighted that the administration’s bold deregulation policies—including the removal of fuel subsidies and foreign exchange market reforms—have begun to correct these structural imbalances, fostering a more transparent and investment-friendly market environment.
The conference served as a platform to advance discussions on establishing a regional pricing benchmark for refined petroleum products across West Africa.
This initiative seeks to create a localized index for key commodities—including gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)—to enhance price discovery, reduce arbitrage, and promote intra-regional trade stability.
Bagudu lamented decades of chronic underinvestment in Nigeria’s oil and gas infrastructure compared to peer nations, attributing this to regulatory uncertainty and fiscal inefficiencies.
However, he expressed confidence that the current administration’s policy reforms—such as the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) implementation and incentives for modular refineries—are catalyzing a sectoral turnaround.
He said: “Our extension of multilateral cooperation and sustained support of the government have created an enabling environment that is attractive for investment in our industry,” he stated, pledging his ministry’s collaboration with all stakeholders in achieving the strategic objectives of the West African refined fuel objectives.
“We can do much more. Our ambition in Nigeria is to generate double-digit growth. Our ambition in Nigeria is to refine all that is produced in Nigeria and even for some West African countries,” he stressed.
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