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The Nigerian naira bounced against the United States dollar with significant appreciation across official and parallel foreign exchange markets.
The Central Bank of Nigeria’s data showed that the Naira strengthened to N1,347.78 on Monday, up from N1,355.42 on Friday last week.
This means that the Naira recorded N7.64 against on Monday when compared with Friday.
At the black market, the Naira made a massive gain of N40 to close at N1,400 on Monday from N1,440.
The Eastern Updates reports that the performance of the Naira on Monday is a significant recovery from the losses recorded last week Thursday and Friday.
This comes as the country’s inflation rate eased to 15.10 percent in January 2026, according to the National Bureau of Statistics’s data released on Monday.
Read More; Daily Fuel Shipments Shrink To 24.8m Liters In 42% Drop
The Eastern Updates reports that the country’s external reserves surged to $47.81 billion as of 12th February 2026.
Nigeria’s reliance on imported gasoline fell sharply in January as the Dangote Petroleum Refinery increased deliveries to the domestic market, according to data released by the country’s petroleum regulator over the weekend.
Daily petrol imports dropped to 24.8 million litres in January, down 42.2 percent from the 42.8 million litres brought into the country in December, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority said in its monthly report.
The decline coincided with a substantial rise in output from the $20 billion Dangote facility, which supplied 40.1 million litres per day to local distributors last month, a 25.3 percent increase from December’s 32 million litres. The privately owned refinery has emerged as the dominant source of petrol in Africa’s most populous nation since ramping up production in recent months.
Total daily petrol availability across Nigeria reached 64.9 million litres in January, representing a 12.5 percent reduction compared with the 74.2 million litres recorded the previous month, NMDPRA said.
The regulator reported the country held 33 days of petrol reserves during January, a 13 percent improvement over December due to what it described as stronger supply performance by the Dangote plant.
Actual daily consumption, measured by fuel dispatched from depots via trucks, averaged 60.2 million litres for petrol, exceeding the official benchmark of 50 million litres, the authority said. Diesel truck-outs reached 19.2 million litres per day, while aviation fuel deliveries totaled 3.5 million litres daily. Liquefied petroleum gas shipments averaged 4,860 metric tonnes each day.
The Dangote refinery operated at 61.27 percent of its installed capacity in January, according to the report. Three state-owned refineries managed by NNPC Limited remained offline during the same period.
Read also: NMDPRA: Dangote’s 40m Daily Liters Push Fuel Supply Up 25%
In a separate development, the Wintersmith Refining and Petrochemical Company has begun crude oil test runs at the second phase of its refinery in Imo State, a move industry observers say could boost domestic fuel production in coming months.
The facility currently processes 5,000 barrels per day and has been operational since November 2020, producing diesel, kerosene, naphtha and heavy fuel oil. The second phase, which has been undergoing pre-commissioning activities since late last year, is designed to lift total capacity to roughly 50,000 barrels per day once complete.
NMDPRA confirmed in its weekend report that hydrocarbon introduction had commenced at the Wintersmith plant, signaling a transition from mechanical completion to live operational testing.
Analysts view the expansion as significant for Nigeria’s modular refinery sector, which policymakers have promoted as a way to reduce import dependence, capture more value from domestic crude production, and limit foreign exchange outflows tied to fuel purchases.
If brought fully online, the expanded Wintersmith facility would add meaningful volumes to local refining capacity and help supply diesel to industrial consumers, easing demand for imported products.
The development comes as federal authorities pursue broader efforts to strengthen domestic refining capabilities and improve operational efficiency across the petroleum value chain.
Saidu Mohammed, chief executive of NMDPRA, described the downstream petroleum sector as undergoing “an irreversible renaissance, driven by bold reforms, investment, and regulatory clarity.”
Under the Petroleum Industry Act, Nigeria’s downstream market has been fully liberalized, with pricing increasingly shaped by market forces rather than government controls, Mohammed said. The sector is “no longer defined by scarcity and supply uncertainty,” he added.
Mohammed credited the Dangote refinery as a transformative development and said ongoing economic reforms had reduced import-related fiscal losses by more than N6 trillion.
He told stakeholders the regulator would maintain a fair, firm and decisive approach to oversight of the midstream and downstream sectors, emphasizing that effective regulation should “enable value, not inhibit it.”
Mohammed concluded his remarks by stating that “confidence is the true currency of any market,” underscoring the importance of predictable policy frameworks in attracting investment to the sector.
Nigeria has struggled for decades with fuel shortages despite being one of Africa’s largest oil producers. State-owned refineries fell into disrepair over the years, forcing the country to import the vast majority of its gasoline and diesel even as it exported crude.
The Dangote refinery, located near Lagos, has a nameplate capacity of 650,000 barrels per day and is among the largest single-train refineries globally. Its gradual increase in production has begun to alter Nigeria’s fuel supply dynamics, though the plant has yet to reach full output.
Authorities have not disclosed a timeline for when the Wintersmith expansion will be completed or when NNPC’s state-owned refineries might resume operations.
