Dangote Petroleum Refinery says petrol buyers will now pay in dollars from Sunday, September 28, urging customers with ongoing naira-based transactions to formally request refunds.
In an email signed by the Group Commercial Operations of Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals, entitled ‘Suspension of DPRP PMS Naira Sales – Effective 28th September 2025,’ Dangote said it was no longer able to sustain crude sales in naira.
The email read in part, “We write to inform you that Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals has been selling petroleum products in excess of our Naira-Crude allocations and, consequently, we are unable to sustain PMS sales in Naira going forward.
“Kindly note that this suspension of Naira sales for PMS will be effective from Sunday, 28th of September, 2025. We will provide further updates regarding the resumption of supply once the situation has been resolved.
“All customers with PMS transactions in Naira who would like a refund of their current payments should formally request the processing of their refund.”
The refinery had in March 2025 stopped sales of refined products in naira, alleging inadequancy of crude allocations under the crude-for-naira programme.
Sources close to Dangote Petroleum Refinery said the major cause of the shift was the failure of the crude-for-naira policy to supply adequate feedstock to the refinery. Dangote refinery has been moving overseas to buy its crude as local supply stagnates. It bought its first crude oil from Brazil and Equatorial Guinea in March 2025, according to a company executive quoted by S & P Global.
In July 2025, President/Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Industries Limited, Mr Aliko Dangote, said that the group’s petroleum refinery often imported about 9 million -10 million barrels of crude every month from the US and other markets.
“So, while we produce plenty of crude, we still import over 120 million tonnes of refined petroleum products each year, effectively exporting jobs and importing poverty into our continent. That’s a $90 billion market opportunity being captured by regions with surplus refining capacity. To put this in perspective: only about 15% of African countries have a GDP greater than $90 billion. We are effectively handing over an entire continent’s economic potential to others—year after year,” Dangote said while delivering a keynote address at the West African Refined Fuel Conference held in Abuja.
He noted that it defied logic and economic sense for Africa to export raw crude “only to re-import refined products—products we are more than capable of producing ourselves, closer to both source and consumption.”
Naira-for-crude policy fails
Dangote Petroleum Refinery had earlier claimed that the recently negotiated naira crude sales were not working, Economy Post reported.The Nigerian government officially launched its naira-for-crude sale agreement with Dangote Refinery on October 1, 2024. The crude supplies were to be made by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).
According to Minister of Finance, Mr Wale Edun, “The sale of crude oil and refined petroleum products in Naira has officially commenced as of October 1st, 2024,” he stated in October.
“Following the launch, key stakeholders convened on October 3, 2024, to conduct a post-commencement review of the Crude Oil and Refined Products Sales in Naira initiative, the commencement of this strategic initiative was affirmed by key stakeholders.”
However, in November 2024, Executive Director at Dangote Group and Head of Dangote Petroleum Refinery, Mr Edwin Devakumar, simply said the initiative was a near failure.
“We need 650,000 barrels per day. The state oil firm, NNPC Limited, agreed to give a minimum of 385,000 bpd but they are not even delivering that,” said Mr Devakumar told Reuters.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has been unable to supply enough crude to Dangote due to its crude commitments with joint venture partners. The NNPCL has also been repaying some debts with the nation’s crude.
Blow for Nigeria
Analysts say the decision of Dangote to halt naira petrol sales is a big blow for Nigeria, which has witnessed some stability in petrol sales for much of 2025.
An Abuja-based economist, Mr Abdul Mohammad, said the decision, if allowed to stand, would put pressure on the naira “as petrol buyers will move in droves to the foreign exchanage market to buy dollars.”
“It is not good news at all. Apart from the possible impact on the naira, which is enjoying some stability, it will aso lead to increases in petrol prices, which will again trigger inflation. I hope the president intervenes,” he added.
