The Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) has accused the Dangote Group of selling gasoline to foreign traders at lower prices than to Nigerian marketers. The Dangote Group has denied these claims.
In an interview with Punch, Olufemi Adewole, the Executive Secretary of DAPPMAN, claimed that members of the association were able to purchase Dangote gasoline from foreign dealers in Lomé, Togo, for ₦65 less than what the refinery sells locally.
“Dangote offers his goods to foreign traders for ₦65 less than he does to us. We were able to purchase from them in certain cases and yet deliver it to Nigeria, Adewole asserted.
The Dangote Group responded in a statement on Monday, calling the allegations “misleading and inaccurate.”
The corporation asked why the price of gasoline is ₦865 per liter in Nigeria and more than double that in Togo.
“The assertion that petrol costs less in Togo than in Nigeria is untrue. According to the statement, “a simple check shows that the average pump price in Lomé is about 680 CFA francs per litre, or ₦1,826.”
Despite importing more than 60% of the crude oil it processes, the corporation emphasized that its refinery has established Nigeria as the main supplier of reasonably priced gasoline feedstock for West Africa.
Dangote also charged several marketers with round-tripping, which involves purchasing gasoline in Nigeria, reimporting it at exorbitant costs, and then passing it via Togo.
It is becoming more and more clear that DAPPMAN and a few of its members are overly preoccupied with importing refined goods, even going so far as to acknowledge round-tripping. Given the significant increased expense of shipping petroleum goods from Lomé to Lagos, what is the commercial justification for this practice, the company questioned?
Given that local partners already benefit from volume-based discounts, credit facilities, and logistics help, the refinery made the case that marketers who are dedicated to Nigeria’s domestic market ought to collaborate directly with it.
“Why not join the expanding list of local partners of the Dangote refinery if their genuine goal is to service the Nigerian home market? Along with high-quality items, these partners also receive incentives aimed at improving local availability at a suggested rate that has been agreed upon by all stakeholders, the statement continued.
Additionally, Dangote explained that price variations can occur based on whether marketers lift goods straight from the gantry or using the Single Point Mooring (SPM) facility. It cautioned that serving local customers has never really been the focus of the Nigerian petroleum industry for certain players.
Delivering petroleum goods to Nigerian consumers has never really been the focus of some operators’ businesses, in actuality. As an alternative, it centers on arbitrage opportunities, which allow them to quickly quadruple the value of items by rerouting them to more profitable markets inside the subregion, the statement stated.
