The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) have formalised a partnership to strengthen competition, market transparency and consumer protection across Nigeria’s petroleum sector.
The agreement, signed in Abuja on Thursday, will enable both regulators to share information, improve market intelligence and coordinate enforcement in areas where their mandates intersect, providing a stronger framework for monitoring conduct across the midstream and downstream petroleum market.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, FCCPC Executive Vice Chairman, Tunji Bello, said effective regulation required closer cooperation between government agencies, particularly in a sector with direct implications for transportation, food prices, manufacturing and household costs.
Bello, however, clarified that the FCCPC does not regulate or approve petroleum prices in Nigeria’s deregulated downstream market. Instead, its responsibility is to ensure that market outcomes are driven by fair competition rather than collusion, innovation rather than dominance, and consumer choice rather than exploitation.
“For Nigerian consumers, our welfare remains at the centre of the FCCPC’s work.
“Consumers are encouraged to continue to report suspected violations through the operating channels available at both FCCPC and NMDPRA,” Bello said.
The FCCPC chief said businesses that comply with regulations and compete fairly would benefit from a market in which transparency and competition are strengthened, while practices capable of distorting market outcomes would attract regulatory attention.
On his part, NMDPRA Chief Executive, Rabiu Umar, said the agreement would strengthen competitive markets, consumer protection and transparency across the energy value chain. He said the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018 provide the basis for both agencies to work together in monitoring and enforcing compliance.
Umar identified accurate product metering, fuel quality, collusive pricing, product withholding and anti-competitive market allocation among the areas that would receive regulatory attention. The scope, he said, extends from refining and processing through transportation and bulk storage to wholesale distribution and retail pump sales.
“Importantly, our focus on consumer and market protection extends across the entire value chain, from refining to processing, whether it is liquid fuels or gas, to transportation and bulk storage.
“It extends right down to wholesale distribution and the retail prices at the pumps as well.
“And in an evolving deregulated market structure, deregulation must never be equated with the absence of oversight,” he said.
The agreement therefore establishes a clearer basis for joint regulatory action in a market where pricing is deregulated but operators remain subject to competition, quality, metering and market-conduct rules.
Its implementation will determine how effectively both agencies use shared intelligence and coordinated enforcement to address practices that undermine competition across Nigeria’s petroleum value chain.