President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently met with key stakeholders, including Aliko Dangote, Chairman of Dangote Group, and Mele Kyari, CEO of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), for an update from the Implementation Committee on Crude Oil and Refined Products Sales in Local Currency. This meeting, chaired by Finance Minister Wale Edun, took place at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Following the government’s recent decision to sell crude oil to the Dangote Refinery in naira instead of U.S. dollars, this briefing highlighted efforts to implement the new policy. The initiative, approved by the Federal Executive Council in October, aims to stabilize fuel prices domestically and reduce dependency on the dollar, strengthening Nigeria’s currency.
As part of the strategy, NNPC will supply crude oil in naira to Dangote Refinery, which in turn is expected to sell petrol and diesel locally in naira. By facilitating transactions in the local currency, the government hopes to ease pressure on foreign exchange reserves and reduce the costs of fuel imports, potentially cutting FOREX demand by up to 40 percent with backing from the Central Bank of Nigeria and AfreximBank.
However, a pricing disagreement surfaced last month, with NNPC claiming to pay N898 per litre for fuel from Dangote Refinery, a figure Dangote representatives disputed as “misleading” due to unresolved pricing agreements. Today’s meeting with President Tinubu could be crucial in resolving these differences and solidifying the local currency sales framework for smoother fuel distribution and economic stability.
