‘Govt Must Increase Tariff on Imported Lubricants to Boost Indegeneous Firm’ 

Oluchi Chibuzor

Industrialist and the Chairman of Chicason Group, Chika Okafor, has called on the federal government to increase the tariff on imported lubricants in order to curb dumping of fake products into the country and thereby boosting indigenous firms market share.

He pointed out that Nigeria has the potential to control Africa lubricant markets if given the adequate support and protection to participate globally in the lubricant market.

He stated this in Lagos when AZ Petroleum Products Limited a subsidiary of the group announced its synthetic lubricant products relaunch.

According to him, “As an organisation, we believe that this is a necessary step to take, to adequately reflect our position as a forward-thinking company that offers superior grade quality products which aids seamless transitions, reduces wear and tear, rejuvenates, and breathes life into your engines while leaving a positive effect as regards the society at large.

“The newly packaged and improved products which include, AZ crown X10,000, AZ crown super SAE-20W/50, AZ crown super+, AZ crown Elite, AZ PMO, AZ super 4T, AZ ATF Dexron III, AZ TXPSAE 50 and AZ AZGO are specifically engineered to reduce emissions, hereby grossly eliminating the adverse effect of air pollution and in turn creating a greener, safer environment.”

On the new product, he explained that the products have been improved and are specifically engineered to cater to the different needs of vehicle, industry cars, tricycles and generators while providing them with superior performance and quality unmatched.

He, however, stressed the need for the government to protect indigenous businesses as some importers are deliberately sabotaging indigenous firms that are operating under regulatory guidelines to produce quality products.

Lamenting the limitation of fake products on their business, Okafor, maintained that their partnership with regulatory authorities will create sanity in the market.

“Is just to support local production because Nigeria has the capacity that can supply the whole of Africa market. What we need is government protection that will help us to increase jobs. I believe that everybody is sourcing money from the same market and the only problem we have is those people that are bringing fake products from overseas, especially from Dubai and those people who always think about how to short change everybody. The moment your product starts doing well in the market they will start planning to make profit on your hard work, but we are working very hard with Standards Organisation Of Nigeria (SON) and The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to fight adulteration, “he said.