A leading private-sector focused civil advocacy group in Nigeria, the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has cautioned the Federal Government on the policy advisory by the World Bank to increase the importation of petroleum products and food, stressing that adopting it could reverse the nation’s recent policy reforms economic gains.
The Centre, in a Brief Note issued on Sunday and signed by its Chief Executive Officer of CPPE, Dr Muda Yusuf, maintained that the recommendation contained in the bank’s just published ‘Nigerian Development Update’ fundamentally misaligned with Nigeria’s current economic realities and reform trajectory.
According to the OPS advocacy group, at a time when the country is making measurable progress in restoring macroeconomic stability as demonstrated by improving foreign reserves, moderating inflation, a more stable exchange rate regime, and growing capacity for the export of refined petroleum products, the government’s policy priority should be to consolidate these gains, not undermine them.
The CPPE stated: “Nigeria is gradually transitioning towards greater self-sufficiency in petroleum products supply, driven by significant private investments in domestic refining capacity. This momentum should be strengthened through deliberate policies that support local production, enhance value addition, and deepen industrial linkages within the economy.
“Encouraging increased importation of petroleum products at this stage risks reversing hard-won gains. It would exacerbate foreign exchange pressures, weaken domestic refining investments, and heighten the economy’s vulnerability to external shocks—particularly in a global environment characterized by geopolitical tensions and energy market volatility.
“The emphasis, therefore, should be on expanding and stabilizing domestic production capacity, ensuring reliable crude supply to local refineries on competitive terms, and fostering an enabling environment for downstream sector investments. This is the pathway to sustainable energy security, economic resilience, and long-term industrial development—not a return to import dependence”, it added
Noting that sustainable economic transformation is anchored on production, value addition, and industrial capability—not import dependence, the Centre pointed out that the Bretton Woods institution’s suggestion that supply-side constraints can be addressed through increased imports rancounter to Nigeria’s long-term development aspirations.
It maintained that what the Nigerian economy urgently required is a coherent industrial strategy that expands domestic production capacity, strengthens manufacturing competitiveness, and deepens value chains across critical sectors, stressing that import-driven solutions risk accelerating de-industrialisation, weakening the real sector, and undermining job creation prospects in an economy with a rapidly growing labour force.
On the bank’s assumption that trade liberalisation enhances competition, the Centre argued that the development finance institution failed to reflect the structural realities facing Nigerian producers as domestic firms are currently contending with poor logistics and transport infrastructure, high energy costs, rising financing costs, with lending rates often exceeding 25–30%, and multiple taxation, fees, and regulatory burdens
The CPPE noted that in this context, the notion of “competition” between imports and domestic production by the World Bank was both misleading and inequitable, adding that what is being presented as market competition is, in reality, a structural asymmetry that places domestic producers at a significant disadvantage.
It expatiated: “Nigerian refiners and other manufacturers operate in a high-cost environment—characterised by elevated energy costs, logistics bottlenecks, infrastructure deficits, high interest rates, and policy uncertainties—while many foreign competitors benefit from far more enabling ecosystems, including state-backed subsidies, efficient infrastructure, and lower financing costs.
“This is not a level playing field. It is effectively a contest between structurally constrained local investors and globally competitive firms with systemic advantages. Such a framework cannot deliver efficient market outcomes; rather, it undermines domestic capacity, discourages investment, and perpetuates import dependence.
“Beyond the issue of structural imbalance, there are also legitimate concerns around the quality of imported petroleum products and the risk of dumping. In the absence of robust quality assurance and trade safeguards, the domestic market could be exposed to substandard products, with implications for consumer protection, environmental standards, and the sustainability of local refining investments.
“A policy stance that tolerates such distortions not only weakens domestic industry but also compromises Nigeria’s long-term objective of achieving energy security, industrial self-reliance, and sustainable economic growth.
“Sustainable competition should be fostered within a strengthened domestic industrial ecosystem, not through exposure to import pressures”, the Centre stressed.
Having critically appraised other current micro and macroeconomic issues in the global and domestic economies, including energy security, food imports and agricultural disincentives, global shift towards strategic protection, the OPS advocacy group advised the World Bank to recalibrate its policy advisory towards industrialisation-driven reforms, rather than import expansion.
It advised the bank to focus its priority policy recommendations on expansion of domestic refining capacity and guaranteed crude supply to local refineries; targeted interventions to reduce production costs, especially energy and logistics; and strengthening manufacturing ecosystems and industrial clusters.
Others are enhancing agricultural productivity and agro-processing value chains; addressing structural bottlenecks constraining private sector production; and promoting backward integration and local content development
The CPPE stressed that these remained the policy pathways that will deliver sustainable growth, job creation, and economic resilience.
In its concluding remarks, the Centre noted that import liberalisation cannot be a sustainable solution to Nigeria’s supply-side challenges and that on the contrary, it risks deepening structural vulnerabilities, accelerating de-industrialisation, and exposing the economy to greater external shocks.
Specifically, it advocated that Nigeria’s development trajectory must be anchored on a production-driven growth model, characterised by strong domestic refining capacity, competitive manufacturing sector, robust agricultural systems, and energy and food security
The CPPE therefore urges policymakers to reject import-dependent strategies and prioritise reforms that build a resilient, self-reliant, and industrialised Nigerian economy.