Niger Republic has turned to Nigeria for help after being hit by fuel shortage.
The West African country reached out to Nigeria despite months of diplomatic tensions and hostile rhetoric.
Sunday PUNCH learnt that a delegation of senior officials of the military junta travelled down to Abuja to meet Federal Government representatives.
At the end of the deliberation, 300 trucks of Premium Motor Spirit were reportedly approved for delivery to the country.
A senior government official aware of the development said Nigeria approved the deal with the hope of using it as a “strategic bargaining tool” in ongoing negotiations with Niger.
According to the official, the delegation explained that Niger had been reliant on fuel from a Chinese refinery.
However, due to issues with the supplier, the refinery was shut down, leaving the country with limited options.
Our correspondents gathered that Niger turned to Nigeria after the fuel shortage problem became critical. However, the details of the arrangement are said to be secret.
“We do not want to blow our trumpet. Rather, we want to use it as a bargaining chip for negotiation, as we continue to engage with them to bring them back to ECOWAS.
“Let them get more from us. I am confident that gradually they will come back to ECOWAS because they do not have enough resources to import food to sustain their citizens,” the source added.
Officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited said the deal could have been done by the Presidency, as the national oil firm now operates as a limited liability company.
Similarly, a source at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery declined comments due to diplomatic concerns.
The Presidency also declined comments on the matter.
Niger fuel crisis
Sunday PUNCH gathered that the fuel crisis in Niger reached alarming proportions last week after a litre of petrol sold for N8,000 in some parts of the country.
Findings by our correspondents in Sokoto State, which shares a border with Niger, showed that the price of petrol varied depending on the distance from Nigeria.
A transborder businessman from Nigeria, Mallam Abubakar Usman, said, “There is serious scarcity of fuel in the country. It depends on where one is getting the fuel.
“In Konni, the border town between Nigeria and Niger, you can get a litre at 1,200 CFA, which is about N2,500. If you go to Agadez, the same litre of fuel is 3,000 CFA, equivalent to N7,500 per litre. In Arilit, a local government under Agadez, which is the border town between Niger and Algeria, it is 3,500 CFA, which is about N8,750 when converted to our currency.”
Usman attributed the scarcity to the deteriorating relationship between Nigeria and Niger.
An official of the Nigerian Immigration Service, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that some trucks carrying petrol were sighted passing through the border.
Niger-China oil firm clash
The fuel crisis in Niger may have been self-inflicted after a confrontation between the ruling junta and Chinese oil companies which had long dominated the country’s petroleum sector.
A security analyst, Zagazola Makama, in an article he published on X, revealed that trouble began in March 2024 when the China National Petroleum Corporation granted the Nigerien government a $400m advance, using future crude oil deliveries as collateral.
The deal was to help Niger cope with crippling economic sanctions imposed by ECOWAS following the July 2023 coup in the country.
However, when it was time to repay the debt, the junta was cash strapped.
Instead of negotiating, the military rulers were said to have decided to strong-arm China, slapping an $80bn tax demand on Soraz (Zinder Refinery Company) despite the state-owned Sonidep already owing Soraz a staggering $250bn.
According to Makama, when China refused to provide additional loans, the junta retaliated by expelling Chinese oil executives from the country and seizing Soraz’s bank accounts.
The decision was said to have backfired and led to the collapse of Niger’s petroleum sector, which is heavily reliant on Chinese expertise and investment.
The Soraz refinery, the lifeline of Niger’s fuel supply, ground to a halt, and fuel shortages spread like wildfire.
But the Commercial Director of the state-owned Nigerien Company for Oil Products (Sonidep), Maazou Aboubacar, told AFP that the Soraz refinery in Zinder could no longer satisfy domestic demand.
According to him, the reason is principally down to the drying up of the flourishing black market supplied from Nigeria.
The country’s refinery only provides Sonidep with 25 tanker trucks of petrol a day, when the daily national requirement is up to twice that.
Domestic consumption was said to have been boosted by a cut in fuel prices introduced by the military regime that seized power in Niger in 2023.
Nigeria the good neighbour
Niger Republic’s Head of State, Brig. Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, had accused Nigeria of colluding with France to destabilise his country through the terror group, Lakurawa.
Speaking in Hausa in December 2024, Tchiani claimed that there were plans to establish a terrorist training camp in Gaba Forest, near Sokoto, as part of a supposed agreement between France and the Islamic State West Africa Province.
He further alleged that Nigerian authorities were aware of these developments.
The Federal Government denied the allegations.
In February 2025, Niger reportedly stopped some Nigerians from entering into its cities because they carried ECOWAS passports.
Makama, the counter- insurgency expert, said despite the false accusations and diplomatic snubs, Nigeria stepped in to help Niger with fuel which had been crossing into the country to ease the crisis.
While sharing videos of some of the fuel trucks going into Niger, he said the junta remained too proud to admit its dependency.
“While fuel shipments from Nigeria have already started alleviating the crisis, Niger’s state media has deliberately avoided reporting where the fuel is coming from. Instead, the government has attempted to portray the fuel availability as a result of its own internal measures, a claim that many Nigeriens are beginning to question,” he said.
Nigeria supplied 13.5 million litres of petrol
Reacting, oil marketers said although they were not aware of the deal, the export of 300 tankers to Niger Republic would amount to about 13.5 million litres of petrol.
It was calculated that 300 of 45,000-litre capacity trucks is about 13.5 million litres of petrol to be exported to Niger Republic.
The dealers, however, stated that Nigeria had enough to save the junta-led country from the current fuel crisis rocking it.
According to marketers, Nigeria may have passed the days of fuel scarcity as it now has the Dangote refinery, the Port Harcourt refinery, and others producing fuel locally even as importers bring more from other countries.
The National Vice President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Hammed Fashola, said he was aware of the fuel crisis in Niger Republic, adding that Nigeria had enough to bail out the country.
“I will not say we don’t have that capacity with the refineries we have in the country. I think we have enough to supply Niger Republic,” the IPMAN Vice President said.
Similarly, the National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis-Harry, agreed that the country had enough PMS to help its neighbours without running into any crisis.
“If we have a diplomatic reason for that, it is doable,” Gillis-Harry asserted.
