The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Engr. Farouk Ahmed, has dismissed allegations concerning the financing of his children’s education, describing them as misleading and lacking factual basis.
The statement follows allegations made against Ahmed by the President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote. Dangote, during a press conference held on Sunday in Lagos, accused the NMDPRA chief of corruption and claimed that he spent about $5 million on the secondary school education of his four children in Switzerland.
In a statement issued on December 16, 2025, Ahmed said the claims were intended to cast doubt on his integrity and distract from ongoing regulatory reforms in the petroleum sector.
Ahmed traced his career to 1991, when he joined Nigeria’s petroleum administration through the civil service as a junior engineer, rising through the ranks over three decades based on merit and technical competence. He said he served in key areas including crude oil marketing, gas supply monitoring and downstream operations.
By 2012, he said, he had become General Manager of the Crude Oil Marketing Division, overseeing Nigeria’s most critical revenue stream during a period of global oil price volatility. He later served as Deputy Director in 2015, with responsibility for downstream regulation during periods of fuel scarcity and pricing controversies.
Ahmed said his appointment as NMDPRA Chief Executive in 2021 came with a clear mandate to implement the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) transparently and without favour, noting that reforms aimed at addressing decades of opacity and regulatory capture were bound to generate opposition.
Addressing the education funding allegations, Ahmed said three of his four children received merit-based scholarships covering between 40 and 65 per cent of tuition costs, adding that the records were verifiable. He also disclosed that additional funding came from education trust funds established by his late father before his death in 2018, as well as from his personal savings accumulated over decades of public service.
He stated that his annual remuneration as NMDPRA CEO, estimated at about ₦48 million including allowances, is publicly available in audited reports, and that he has consistently submitted asset declarations to the Code of Conduct Bureau since joining public service.
Ahmed said he had authorised educational institutions attended by his children to disclose relevant financial records to authorised Nigerian government investigators, insisting that foreign schools do not accept funds that are not legitimately earned.
He further linked the timing of the allegations to recent regulatory actions by the NMDPRA, including the enforcement of stricter licensing requirements, tougher quality standards for petroleum products and the introduction of more transparent pricing mechanisms.
He defended the issuance of import licences when domestic supply is insufficient, describing it as a statutory obligation under Section 7 of the Petroleum Industry Act to ensure supply security and prevent scarcity.
Since 2021, Ahmed said the authority has published monthly supply reports, established public data portals, reduced fuel queues through improved supply chain management, implemented depot-to-station tracking to curb diversion and enforced quality standards uniformly across the sector.
The NMDPRA chief formally invited the Code of Conduct Bureau to review all his asset declarations, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to examine his financial records and sources of income, and the National Assembly to exercise its oversight function regarding any allegations of regulatory compromise during his tenure.
“I will cooperate fully with any genuine and professional investigation,” Ahmed said, stressing that he would not be intimidated into abandoning the authority’s statutory responsibilities.
He concluded by reaffirming his commitment to regulatory independence and transparency, stating that his financial and professional records would withstand any legitimate scrutiny.
