The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has opposed increasing demands for unrestricted petroleum product imports, stressing that Nigeria cannot reach industrial greatness by relying too heavily on imports.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the Chief Executive Officer of the CPPE, Muda Yusuf, said the country must prioritise domestic refining, manufacturing and value addition to strengthen economic resilience and protect national sovereignty.
According to the organisation, the debate over fuel imports extends beyond petroleum products and reflects broader concerns about Nigeria’s industrialisation strategy, macroeconomic stability and productive capacity.
The CPPE noted that countries which rely heavily on imports often weaken domestic industries, export jobs, and erode local investments, stressing that no economy has achieved sustainable industrial growth through import dependence.
The organisation recalled that Nigeria previously spent over $10 billion annually on petroleum product imports and trillions of naira on fuel subsidies, a development it said worsened pressure on foreign reserves, weakened the naira, deepened fiscal leakages and fuelled macroeconomic fragility.
It argued that the country’s dependence on imported fuel contributed significantly to foreign exchange illiquidity and investor uncertainty before recent economic reforms helped stabilise the market.
The CPPE maintained that every serious economy protects strategic sectors through industrial policies and targeted support mechanisms. It cited examples from the United States, China, Europe and India, where governments continue to promote domestic manufacturing competitiveness through tariffs, subsidies and local production initiatives.
The organisation stressed that self-reliance should not be mistaken for economic isolationism, describing it instead as pragmatic economic manage
ment anchored on national interest and resilience against external shocks.
Commenting on the local refining industry, the CPPE said the establishment of the Dangote Refinery and investments in modular refineries represent some of the most significant industrial projects in Africa and should be strategically protected rather than undermined by unrestricted import policies.
It warned that encouraging indiscriminate fuel importation could discourage future industrial investments and create contradictory policy signals for investors.
“The pathway to competition is not the promotion of imports. The pathway to competition is the encouragement of additional domestic refining investments,” the organisation stated.
The CPPE further argued that Nigerian manufacturers operate under difficult conditions characterised by high energy costs, poor infrastructure, elevated interest rates, logistics bottlenecks and foreign exchange volatility, while foreign competitors benefit from more supportive operating environments.
According to the organisation, exposing local industries to unrestricted foreign competition under such asymmetric conditions would weaken industrialisation, destroy jobs and deepen import dependence rather than improve efficiency.
The organisation also rejected claims portraying the Dangote Refinery as a monopolistic threat, insisting that scale and large market share should not automatically be interpreted as abuse of market power.
It maintained that competition regulators, rather than import liberalisation policies, should address concerns around market dominance.
The CPPE warned that Nigeria risks repeating the collapse experienced in sectors such as textiles, tyre manufacturing, automobile assembly and electronics if indiscriminate liberalisation continues without deliberate support for local production capacity.
It added that while imports may offer short term price relief to consumers, long term industrial development requires policy consistency, strategic protection and sustained investment in domestic productive capacity.
The organisation concluded that Nigeria must decide whether to build a production driven economy or remain dependent on consumption and imports, warning that countries which neglect domestic production eventually weaken their currencies and expose themselves to external vulnerabilities.
