Nigeria's Dangote Petroleum Refinery, Africa's largest oil refinery, is ramping up output to meet national petrol and diesel demand, it said on Saturday, after the government approved a new import tariff on fuel aimed at protecting domestic production.

The continent's top oil producer has long sought to end its reliance on imported fuel, and the 15% import duty seeks to safeguard recent multi-billion-dollar investments in domestic refining, the government said in a memo announcing the measure this week.

Anthony Chiejina, a spokesperson of the Dangote Group, which spent $20 billion to build the 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery, said the tariff initiative would discourage the dumping of substandard fuel products.

The Dangote Refinery, which launched operations last year but has struggled in the face of competition from cheap imports, is in the process of boosting output, he said.

“Our refinery is currently loading over 45 million litres of petrol and 25 million litres of diesel daily which exceeds Nigeria’s demand,” Chiejina said.

Since commencing petrol production in September 2024, the refinery has helped bring down pump prices and eliminate fuel shortages. But local fuel traders say the price reductions are part of a strategy to undercut them.

They warned that the tariff measure, if poorly implemented, could cripple fuel importation and create a refining monopoly, making Nigeria vulnerable to fuel scarcity in the long term.

“Importers of petroleum products, which were a price-check mechanism against profiteering, will be out of business if not properly managed," said Billy Harry, head of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria.

"If local refineries are not properly regulated, monopoly could harm the market,” he added.