The current authorities memo proposes a 15% tariff on gas imports, claiming it would ship “nationwide power safety” and “market stabilisation.”
Let’s look at these beneficiant fictions.
“This Will Reinforce Vitality Safety”
Apparently, power safety now means making gas scarce and costly. The Dangote Refinery produces far beneath Nigeria’s 66-million-litre every day demand, but the answer is to tax the imports that really hold automobiles working? Sensible. Nothing says “safety” like eliminating your backup provide earlier than your main supply works.
“Imports Undercut Native Manufacturing”
Translation: our $20 billion refinery can’t compete with imported gas, so as a substitute of asking why, let’s simply ban the competitors. World refineries face import competitors every day with out requiring their governments to kneecap rivals. However Nigerian shoppers ought to pay premium costs to guard a facility that promised effectivity however delivered excuses.
“The Tariff Will Enhance Affordability”
This may be the memo’s boldest lie. A 15% obligation provides ₦95–₦100 per litre, which turns into ₦140–₦165 after transport, storage, and margins. Meals prices rise. Transport fares leap. Companies shut.
However positive, let’s name financial strangulation “affordability.” Nigerians have already survived subsidy removing and forex collapse; why not add extortion to the listing?
“This Serves Public Curiosity”
Twenty entrepreneurs promote Dangote gas ₦100–₦120 above import costs—no competitors, no consequence. The identical refinery demanding safety from imports quietly imports its personal mixing elements. The hypocrisy is outstanding: imports are harmful except we’re doing the importing.
This isn’t public curiosity. It’s a safety racket with legislative approval.
The Backside Line
Nigeria is being requested to just accept monopoly pricing, provide uncertainty, and financial hardship, all to guard a refinery that may’t ship on its guarantees. True reform would enable competitors to show inefficiency, not reward it with tariffs.
If this passes, bear in mind: it wasn’t coverage. It was a heist, and the authorities held the door open.
Rotimi Matthew, a public coverage analyst, wrote in from Abuja.
