Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), says six business enterprises have been granted licenses by the federal government to import petroleum products.

According to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), three oil marketers will begin importing petroleum products in July.

Farouk Ahmed, the CEO of NMDPRA, told journalists following a meeting with President Bola Tinubu on Monday that the number has climbed to six. He hinted that more importers have applied to bring in the highly demanded product into the country.

There are several companies that applied for fuel importation permit. So, you can apply for importation to get access to the port. And by the way, we are open to all those who are interested in importing,” he said.

“We have guidelines which are not very stringent because we are trying to encourage importation.

“There are six companies who said they want to import fuel in July. Of course, all the others may import in December in November, or anytime but those who expressed interest to bring in fuel in July there were six of them as of this morning.

The beauty of it is that there are interests which means that they have been able to have access to foreign exchange in order to import.

“Now, as we go along, of course, we’ll be briefing you on the progress or the achievements so far, but the important thing is that NNPC has 30 days fuel sufficiency, so we do not anticipate any gap in supply or in distribution.”

Ahmed further refuted accusations that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) had granted Dangote Group permission to import petroleum products, claiming that the company lacked the authority to do so.