IPMAN Seeks Wider Petrol Allocation To Marketers, Backs Dangote Refinery IPO

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has appealed to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals to widen its direct allocation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) to cover all registered independent marketers nationwide, even as it threw its weight behind the refinery’s planned Initial Public Offering (IPO).

The association’s national president, Alhaji Abubakar Shettima, asked the refinery’s management not to limit direct PMS allocation to a select few marketers, but to expand the framework to capture every registered independent marketer across the country.

“We urge the refinery to expand its direct allocation framework to comprehensively capture every registered independent marketer nationwide, instead of a select few,” Shettima said, adding that this would help eliminate anti-competitive bottlenecks, curb exorbitant logistics middlemen fees, and ensure affordable, locally refined fuel reaches more Nigerians.

Shettima also congratulated the management and board of the refinery on its upcoming public share sale, describing it as a major shift that would turn Africa’s largest refinery from a privately owned project into a nationally shared asset. He urged IPMAN members nationwide to invest in the share sale.

He said IPMAN, which he noted controls more than 80 pe rcent of Nigeria’s downstream petroleum retail infrastructure through over 150,000 retail outlets across the country, viewed the offering as strategically important, noting that the refinery’s output helped secure the country’s domestic energy needs while also saving foreign exchange.

“Investment in the Dangote Refinery is a direct stake in the energy security and economic sovereignty of Nigeria,” he said.

He described the share sale as a rare opportunity for marketers to move from being mere off-takers of petroleum products to becoming equity owners of the refinery, saying this would strengthen their collective ability to guarantee steady and affordable fuel distribution across the 36 states and help stabilise pump prices.

On the broader downstream sector, Shettima called on the federal government to introduce stronger policies to discourage the continued importation of PMS, arguing that reliance on imported fuel drains the country’s foreign reserves and weakens domestic industrial growth.

To support this shift, he said IPMAN was calling on all its members nationwide to source their products exclusively from local refineries, adding that this would optimise domestic refining capacity, secure supply chains and guarantee long-term price stability for consumers.

“Embracing our domestic refining capabilities is a patriotic obligation that will eliminate costly freight and port charges, stimulate local employment, and pave the quickest path toward complete national energy independence,” Shettima said.