By Moses Patience Chat
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has revealed its intentions to formalize the activities of about 1,000 unlicensed petroleum retail outlets in discussions in order to get them properly registered and licensed.
The Southwest Zonal Coordinator of NMDPRA, Mr. Ayo Cardoso, revealed this in Lagos during an interview with journalists on the sidelines of the Agency’s one-day Health, Safety, Environment and Community (HSEC) workshop for members in the downstream sector.
Cardoso also noted that the decision to now engage the operators of unlicensed filling stations was taken by the Agency after realizing that the routine clamping down on them, shutting the filling stations down and arresting the promoters had not yielded the desired results.
The NMDPRA Boss further said that the Agency discovered it was better to engage them in a special stakeholder meeting where they would be educated on the need to come under the licensing regime for proper monitoring and regulation of their activities.
“I brought it to the fore that we are also doing the same thing with the stakeholder engagement to tell people that are not licensed, that are operating individually.
We’ve been shutting them down, we’ve been taking them out of business, but what we want to do now is that we are going to engage everybody again, “he said.
