𝐀𝐬 𝐙𝐚𝐥𝐚, 𝐍𝐏, 𝐋𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐨 𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬… 𝐍𝐏𝐑𝐀 𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬

The National Petroleum Regulatory Authority has come under intense criticism from the public about the way the oil marketing companies are manipulating the prices of petroleum products in the country lately.

editorJuly 3, 20252 Mins read327 Views

Because petroleum products are essential and a politically sensitive commodity, if not handled properly, they will hurt the government and the people.

Early in June 2025, Zala Petroleum reduced its fuel pump prices in Sierra Leone. Specifically, they have lowered the price of petrol to NLe25 per liter and diesel to NLe23 per liter. This reduction comes after pressure from the press and the Native Consortium, which has been advocating for lower fuel prices. The move has also influenced other companies like Aminata, Leonco, NP and others to lower their prices.

Although the price drop did not come from the regulators (NPRA), people believe that NPRA would eventually reduce the price of fuel as a matter of necessity. But that did not happen.

On Friday, 13th February, 2025, a meeting was convened at State House, which attracted all stakeholders in the petroleum sector and relevant government officials to address the fuel issue.

At the end of the meeting, the fuel dealers who were selling their fuel below the stipulated government price of NLe27.4 were forced to revert to the official government price contrary to the NPRA Act 2025, which indicates that no one is allowed to sell fuel above the stipulated government price coming from NPRA, if you do it is punishable by law, but selling below the official price is not a crime.

But after that infamous meeting at State House, most of the fuel stations that were selling below the official government price reverted to the old price due to pressure from some government officials, saying some of the big players in the petroleum sector are running at a huge loss because of the price drop.

The dramatic part of all this is when the so called big players decided to reduce their fuel pump price in less than two weeks after complaining of huge losses.

On the 1st June, 2025, NP and Leonco reduced their price of Diesel to NLe24 and Petrol to Nle25 again, and the Government price still remains NLe 27.4, which has forced other stations to drop their prices.

In all of this, the cost of transportation remains the same, as NPRA and the Ministry of Trade are not saying anything to allay the fears of the public about the flip-flop in the price of fuel.

It seems as if the oil marketing companies are regulating themselves.

This will be chaotic for MDAs who are buying large quantities of fuel from different stations at different prices every week or two, which will create room for corruption that will negatively impact the government.

“We exposed their failed price fixing through match-fixing votes with government officials. The Corporate Gangsters have proven the correctness of the Native Consortium Calculus.

Big win for Sierra Leoneans, but the public should wait and see what the leaders of the corporate gangsters, led by NP and Leonco, are up to. They have further made Zala the hero and validated the Native Consortium calculus.

So Mr. Minister of Finance and NPRA, are you still holding onto your NLe27 match-fixing vote?

A government that cares for the people should peg the pump price at NLe23 now and redeem itself, because they have exposed their corrupt moves,” said Edmond Abu, CEO of Native Consortium.