President of the Alumni Association of the Nigerian Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), who is also the chairman of Lubcon International, Alhaji Janni Ibrahim, last week in Lagos, said the development of the lubricants sector is key to the efforts being made to revitalise the automotive industry. Speaking shortly after being inducted as a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering at an event held at the main auditorium of the University of Lagos, Akoka, the Lubcon chairman urged the federal government to quickly address the challenges facing the sector so as to save it from collapse.

Lamenting the effects of adulterated lubricants on the sector, he disclosed that increasing rate of adulteration is endangering the multi-billion naira investments in the sector, Ibrahim called on the regulatory agencies to rise up to the challenge and save the country from the influx of adulterated and fake lubricants flooding the Nigerian market.

Advocating what he described as a multi-dimensional approach to counter the influx of adulterated lubricants in the market so as to boost stakeholders' confidence in the sector, Ibrahim said urgent attention was needed to tackle the menace.

Describing the indiscriminate importation of cheap and substandard lubricants into the country as regrettable, the Lubcon chairman said the federal government must take a bold step to sanitise the industry in order to safeguard millions of jobs across the country.

Lubcon international, an integrated company with subsidiaries in different sectors of the economy, has its main lubricants plant in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, as well as a lube plant in the Ghanaian port city of Tema. It is also constructing another lube plant in Ethiopia.