An unidentified foreign trading corporation has come under fire from Dangote Refinery for reportedly employing a local depot to “blend substandard products” and compete with its superior manufacturing in the Nigerian market.
On Sunday, November 3, 2024, Anthony Chiejina, Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer at Dangote Refinery, made this announcement in a statement.
According to Chiejina, the move is harmful to Nigeria’s domestic refining industry’s expansion.
Dedicated to Manufacturing High-Quality Petroleum Products
Chiejina emphasised that Nigerian domestic refinery will suffer as a result of the neighbouring depot.
He brought to the attention of the appropriate authorities the fact that other nations that produce and refine oil have rules and regulations in place to safeguard their own businesses.
According to the statement, the Nigerian government need to do the same.
“At the same time, an international trading company has recently hired a depot facility next to the Dangote Refinery, with the objective of using it to blend substandard products that will be dumped into the market to compete with Dangote Refinery’s higher-quality production.
“This is detrimental to the growth of domestic refining in Nigeria. We should point out that it is not unusual for countries to protect their domestic industries in order to provide jobs and grow the economy. For example, the U.S. and Europe have imposed high tariffs on EVs and microchips to protect their domestic industries,” the statement read in parts.
Chiejina emphasised that although Dangote Refinery is still dedicated to offering reasonably priced, superior, locally refined petroleum products in Nigeria, it urges the public to ignore the purposeful misinformation regarding petrol prices that is being spread by those who would rather keep exporting jobs and bringing in poverty.
What To Note
The latest accusation against the foreign company comes months after Aliko Dangote, the CEO of Dangote Refinery, met with senior officials from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC), Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), and Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) in Abuja to discuss long-term solutions to the problems facing the nation’s oil industry.
The Dangote Refinery was accused by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) of manufacturing subpar goods in comparison to imported ones prior to that meeting.
The public strongly reacted negatively to the NMDPRA’s remark. His comments were deemed inappropriate by many, who claimed that they denigrated a significant local industry and did not accurately represent the calibre of the refinery’s output.
Dangote responded by asking authorities to test their goods. The business asserted that they are manufacturing higher-quality goods than the majority of filling stations in Nigeria and stood behind the superior calibre of their work.
The refinery’s most recent statement was released a few days after Dangote urged NNPC and other marketers to purchase fuel from the refinery in response to the nation’s worsening fuel shortage.
Dangote claimed that even if daily usage hits 55 million litres, the refinery can still supply local demand.
He pointed out that since marketers already import petrol, sourcing goods from a local manufacturer shouldn’t present any problems.
He underlined that since the refinery’s goods are easily accessible, there is no good reason why marketers shouldn’t purchase supplies from them.
