Nigeria has emerged the third largest consumer of lubricants in Africa. Stakeholders in the sector, who rolled out the statistics recently said there are 32 registered and other illegal blending plants in the country with a total installed capacity of about 965 million liters per year
These blending plants, according to the Principal Partner, Lube services Associates, and Technical Consultants on the project, Kayode Sote, are currently producing at an average of 40% of their total installed capacity, employing over 5,000 Nigerian workers with a potential to increase to an additional work force of 50,000 if the plants are working at their full-installed capacities.
Sote however linked the anomalies in the sector to an inefficient regulatory structure and the poor implementation of policies by the regulatory agencies. He also added that the market is also a dumping ground for sub-standard and off-specification imported lubes of questionable quality.