West Africa: Nigeria's Costly Refinery Obsession

What the report says

AllAfrica, citing a This Day opinion piece by Festus Akanbi, says Nigeria is once again debating the future of its state-owned refineries after President Bola Tinubu renewed a pledge to bring the plants back into operation. The article focuses on the country’s four refineries — in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna — and argues that years of rehabilitation work and maintenance spending have not produced reliable output.

The piece says the government has already committed large sums to the facilities, including approved rehabilitation funding in 2021 and earlier turnaround maintenance spending, but the plants remain largely unable to refine product sustainably. Against that backdrop, the author questions whether continued public investment is justified and frames the issue as one of ownership, management and opportunity cost rather than engineering alone.

The article presents views from several Nigerian energy and business figures who favor a stronger role for private capital. The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria is cited as supporting privatization, while other voices recommend a mixed model that would allow government to retain a minority stake but hand operational control to competent investors. A key warning in the piece is that simply restoring physical assets does not guarantee commercial viability.

The commentary concludes that Nigeria should choose between repeatedly funding public refinery rehabilitation and pursuing a transparent divestment process, while avoiding asset sales to politically connected buyers. It cites the privatization of the former Eleme Petrochemicals complex as an example of a state asset that later performed better under private management.