Title: Impact Of Full Deregulation Policy On The Downstream Sector: A Case Of Eleme Refinery (2006-2010)
Authors: CHIBOGU, PETER CHUKUEMEKE, UZOR, OBIORA ANTHONY
Volume: 9
Issue: 9
Pages: 22-29
Publication Date: 2025/09/28
Abstract:
The oil industry has been contributing immensely to the Nigerian economy and about 80% of the country's foreign exchange earnings come from the oil sector. Nigeria has been experiencing consistent increase in revenue since the discovery of oil but there is no significant development to commensurate to the income generated. The citizens are suffering and in a bid by the Federal Government to reduce the burden of the citizens, they introduced subsidy to make petroleum products cheaper. However, the prices of petroleum products continue to escalate even with the huge sum of money spent on subsidy. It is against this background that this work seeks to examine the issue of deregulation in the downstream oil sector and to find out if full deregulation policy of the downstream sector will enhance the nation's economy. This paper discussed the concept of deregulation and antecedent of fuel subsidy. Survey research methodology was employed using questionnaire as instrument of data collection. Liberal theory was used in this study to show the logical interrelatedness of the research question and the hypotheses. A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed, there was no invalid so 300 were used for final analysis. The respondents were selected using random sampling technique and the findings from the study reveals that downstream oil sector will flourish and boost the nation's economy if handled by the private sector. This work therefore recommended that there should be a proper channel of income inflow to robust the nation's income. Secondly, bureaucratic bottleneck should be eased to allow private sectors participate fully in the business to reduce unemployment problems.