Financial expert and educator, Kalu Aja, has criticized Nigeria’s inability to leverage global oil trade opportunities, describing the country as a “money miss road” in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday, August 1.
Aja’s remarks follow reports that the United States has threatened secondary sanctions against India for continuing to purchase crude oil from Russia. India currently buys nearly half of Russia’s oil exports, with Russian oil making up about 41% of India’s total oil imports.
According to Aja, this development presents a strategic opening for Nigeria — Africa’s largest oil exporter — to fill the potential supply gap if India were forced to reduce or halt imports from Russia.
“What a glorious opportunity for Nigeria, whose trade with India is significant, to step in with a crude oil-for-import swap deal,” he stated.
However, Aja lamented that Nigeria lacks the production capacity to take advantage of the situation. He noted that the country remains stuck at about 1.6 million barrels per day (mbpd) in output and struggles to meet the demands of its local refineries.
“Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude oil exporter, imports crude oil just like India,” Aja wrote. “Nigeria is a money miss road.”
His comments add to ongoing concerns about Nigeria’s oil sector inefficiencies, underproduction, and reliance on imported petroleum products despite its vast crude oil reserves.