Following AA Rano’s announcement that it will roll out the automated filling stations this January, and that the outlets would operate a 24-hour self-service fuelling system, Petrol station workers under the aegis of the Concerned Petrol Station Workers have rejected plans.
The Nigeria’s first fully automated and unmanned fuel stations will rely on contactless payment platforms, real-time monitoring technology, and automated dispensing systems, thereby eliminating the need for on-site pump attendants.
The Concerned Petrol Station Workers and rights advocate, Comrade Ibrahim Zango, expressed strong opposition about the development.
According to a statement issued in Kaduna on Thursday, January 8, 2025, Zango said many young Nigerians currently engaged as petrol station attendants would lose their means of livelihood.
Sango noted that the timing of the initiative was wrong, given the country’s prevailing economic challenges and rising unemployment rate, saying, “At a time when Nigeria is already grappling with mass unemployment, rising cost of living, and growing insecurity, deploying job-eliminating technology without safeguards is dangerous.”
Urging stakeholders to consider the human cost of the innovation and the fact that thousands of families depend on earnings from petrol station jobs, he stated, “So imagine the number of AA Rano fuel stations alone across the country and even beyond. Imagine the number of pump attendants working and earning their living from these stations.”
Zango stated many of the attendants had spent decades in the job and deserved better treatment than being displaced without a clear transition plan adding, “To us, sending us out of the jobs some of us have been doing for decades without robust plans will only multiply our crisis as a country.”
The workers’ leader acknowledged the importance of technological advancement but insisted that innovation should not come at the expense of workers’ welfare.
According to him, automation in the downstream petroleum sector should be designed to create new opportunities rather than eliminate existing jobs.
He urged that the Petrol station workers should not be pushed out of their livelihoods in the name of innovation.
