Fidelia Okafor.

Nigeria has made a decision to ban the importation of Europe’s fuel which is believed to be dirty and contaminated. This decision was in agreement with four other West African countries as announced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The programme said the decision was taken to reduce the inhalation of contaminated air and also vehicular emissions. Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria decided to place in strict measures to ensure cleaner, low sulphur fuels thereby cutting of the European-African market fuel exportation.

UNEP also reported how the European trading markets took advantage of the weak regulatory West African standards to export fuel with up to sulphur levels 300 times higher than those permitted in Europe this year.

With the introduction of new regulatory standards, the programme has also decided to upgrade the operations of privately and publicly owned refineries in their various countries. Also it has been rendering help to West African countries to put a stop to importation of fuel with high sulphur content.