The Director General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Segun Ajayi-Kadiri, has intensified calls for the Federal Government to fully privatise Nigeria’s state-owned refineries, describing them as symbols of waste, inefficiency, and entrenched mismanagement.
His comments, made during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, echo a growing national frustration over the repeated cycle of government spending on unproductive refinery rehabilitation efforts.
Ajayi-Kadiri noted that the continued state ownership of the refineries—located in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna—has not only drained public resources but failed to provide any meaningful return to the Nigerian people.
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“Those four refineries are a pure drain on the Nigerian economy, and it is not fair to the Nigerian people,” he said. “The government should just sell these refineries. Give them to private sector people who will run them efficiently and be able to deliver. When something belongs to everybody, it belongs to nobody.”
His call for full privatization comes amid long-standing criticism of the government’s spending habits, particularly on the moribund refineries that have continued to gulp public funds without producing refined petroleum products.
Ajayi-Kadiri echoes the deep-seated anger and disillusionment shared by a vast majority of Nigerians who view the repeated promises of refinery revitalization as costly illusions. Over the years, the government has poured nearly $3 billion into refurbishing these refineries, with no tangible output to show for it.
The Port Harcourt refinery alone received a $1.5 billion rehabilitation investment, awarded in 2021. That same year, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) announced that it had spent over N100 billion on refinery repairs—yet none of the facilities refined a single barrel of crude. The Warri and Kaduna refineries were jointly allocated another $1.48 billion for their own rehabilitation programmes. These huge capital injections have delivered negligible outcomes, leading many Nigerians to question the rationale for continuing public ownership.
The combined output of Nigeria’s state-owned refineries has remained at or near zero for years, forcing the country to depend almost entirely on imported petroleum products—a costly contradiction for one of the world’s top oil producers.
“We are the sixth-largest producer of crude oil in the world, yet we suffer,” Ajayi-Kadiri said. “If you completely go private, it will be difficult for anyone to steal. It will be difficult to be unaccountable.”
Dangote Refinery: Promise or Monopoly?
The call for privatization comes at a time when the privately owned Dangote Refinery in Lagos is beginning to dominate discourse around Nigeria’s refining capacity. The $19 billion facility has been hailed as a potential game-changer in reducing Nigeria’s dependence on imports, but its emergence has also stirred fears of a market monopoly.
Ajayi-Kadiri dismissed those concerns, arguing that if the other four government-owned refineries were handed over to the private sector and brought into operation, they would naturally serve as competitors to Dangote.
“I do not subscribe to the view that we are creating a monopoly. Those four other refineries are potential competitors. We’ve been told that one is working, then again told that it’s not. Give them to people who will ensure they actually work,” he said.
The MAN boss also outlined other urgent reforms needed to restore industrial growth, beginning with the full implementation and funding of the naira-for-crude oil policy. He also called for major investments in the power sector to resolve the inefficiencies of Nigeria’s distribution companies (DisCos), which continue to leave manufacturers with little choice but to rely on costly alternative energy.
“They should ensure that the ‘naira for crude’ policy is sustainable, adequately funded, and supported. Also, we need to address the incompetent distribution companies and drive investment into the power sector to guarantee supply,” he said.
Ajayi-Kadiri revealed that manufacturers spent over N2 trillion on alternative energy sources in 2023 alone due to the unreliable electricity supply, which significantly drives up the cost of production and final prices of goods in the market.
Insecurity, he added, remains another key disincentive to investment and must be addressed urgently.
“Insecurity is a growing disincentive to investment. Businesses cannot thrive where safety is not guaranteed,” he said.
Fuel Subsidy Removal, Painful But Necessary
While acknowledging the harsh consequences of subsidy removal under President Tinubu’s administration, Ajayi-Kadiri stood by the policy, saying it was necessary to prevent economic collapse. Fuel prices have since surged beyond N600 per liter, triggering widespread inflation and hardship, but he remains optimistic that the prices will eventually fall.
“If Nigeria didn’t stop the subsidy, the subsidy would have stopped or killed us,” he said. “It is going to be better. I see the price coming down to N800, and that is what manufacturers want.”
Growing Clamor for Accountability
Ajayi-Kadiri’s call underscores an intensifying demand among Nigerian stakeholders for accountability in the management of public assets. With $3 billion already spent and little to show for it, many see the continued government control of the refineries as unsustainable and unjustifiable.
The message from MAN’s DG is that Nigerians are tired of watching taxpayer money poured into bottomless pits while poverty deepens and basic infrastructure remains broken. It’s time, he says, to hand over the keys to those who can actually make the engine run.