Olu Verheijen, special adviser to the president on oil and gas, says Nigeria’s petrol import bill has dropped from about N2.3 trillion in the first quarter (Q1) of 2025 to below N90 billion a year later.
Verheijen announced the 96 percent decline at the 2026
Nigeria-British Chamber of Commerce Energy Day on Thursday.
The special adviser said the decline reflects a structural
shift in Nigeria’s energy system, driven by efforts to move from import
dependence to local production and value creation.
She said Nigeria has long struggled to convert its abundant
natural resources into economic output, despite having significant oil, gas, and
other endowments.
According to Verheijen, the country’s energy challenge is
not about resource availability but about translating those resources into
production, revenue, and productivity.
She said energy reforms are designed to correct that
imbalance and reposition the sector for performance rather than potential.
“When energy works, factories run, farms process, transport
gets cheaper, and government can invest in its people,” she said.
“When energy fails, every Nigerian pays — in diesel costs,
food prices, lost jobs and pressure on the naira. That is why energy reform is
economic reform.”
Verheijen said petrol production has risen from effectively
zero in 2023 to about 48 million litres per day, marking a major expansion in
domestic refining capacity.
She said this has resulted in most of the petrol consumed in
Nigeria now being refined locally rather than imported.
“For the first time in a generation, the majority of the
petrol Nigerians consume is now refined here at home, not imported,” the
special adviser said.
She noted the increase in domestic refining has
significantly reduced pressure on foreign exchange demand, which was previously
driven by large-scale fuel imports.
“For decades, every cargo of imported petrol was a standing
demand for scarce dollars — a structural drain that weakened our currency,” the
special adviser said.
Nigeria recorded a trade surplus of N7.54 trillion in Q1
2026, a 340.88 percent increase from the previous quarter, according to the
National Bureau of Statistics.
The improvement was driven largely by a decline in petroleum
product imports and higher crude oil exports during the period.
Imports fell 18.17 percent year-on-year to N13.61 trillion,
while exports rose to N21.16 trillion.
The improvement was driven largely by a decline in petroleum
product imports and higher crude oil exports during the period.
Verheijen said the reduction in imports reflects a
structural transformation in Nigeria’s fuel supply chain, as local production
increasingly replaces imports.
According to the special adviser, energy reforms are already
reflected in fiscal outcomes
“Total federation revenue rose to about N21 trillion in
2024, up from roughly N12 trillion in 2023 — nearly doubling in a single year,”
she said.
Verheijen said the broader objective is to strengthen
economic stability by reducing distortions in the energy market and improving
domestic value creation.
On June 18, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) reported that
imports of refined petroleum products fell by 87.5 percent to $310 million in
Q1 2026 from $2.48 billion recorded in the previous quarter.
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