Dangote Petroleum Refinery has expanded its free delivery of petroleum products to independent marketers in Kano, Imo, Anambra and Nasarawa states, a step aimed at cutting distribution costs and creating room for lower pump prices.
The initiative, which already covers Lagos, Ogun, Rivers, Kaduna, Abuja and Delta, sees the refinery absorb the cost of transporting products from its facility to these additional locations.
Fatima Aliko Dangote, Group Executive Director for Commercial Operations, Oil & Gas, WAEP and Fertiliser, said the programme was intended to ensure the benefits of domestic refining reach beyond the refinery gate.
“The value of domestic refining must ultimately be felt beyond the refinery gate. By absorbing the cost of delivering petroleum products to our customers, we are removing a significant component of the distribution burden and creating room for those savings to flow through the value chain to consumers,” she said. “Our goal is to make fuel distribution more efficient, reduce avoidable costs and support more competitive pump prices across Nigeria.”
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) welcomed the expansion. National Publicity Secretary Chinedu Ukadike said it would ease longstanding financial and logistical pressures on independent marketers, who often pay for products and then wait days or weeks for loading and transport.
“This gesture, if sustained, will be able to alleviate the sufferings of independent marketers,” Ukadike said. “There has been the issue of financial hold-up, whereby marketers pay for products and are not loaded for days and weeks, and they suffer unnecessary hardship bringing the product down.”
He added that the arrangement improves cash flow and reduces risk. “This time around, Dangote has made it very, very easy for marketers. Marketers are jubilating, and you will see the return on investment as an independent marketer. Your money will not be tied down,” he said.
Ukadike noted that lower transport costs could feed through to retail prices. “You also have less risk, and you have petroleum products at your doorstep. Other consumers will also see that our pump price will not continue to go up. The more Dangote brings down its pump price, the more independent marketers will bring down theirs.”
He urged the refinery to extend the service to more locations, particularly in the north, describing the move as a practical benefit of competition and deregulation in the downstream sector.
“This is the beauty of deregulation and competition,” Ukadike said.
The Dangote Refinery, with a capacity of 700,000 barrels per day, continues to increase its supply of refined products to the domestic market. Industry observers say reducing haulage costs is especially significant for marketers serving distant locations, where transport, insurance and related expenses form a substantial part of the final price paid by consumers.
