Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote says his refinery project will boost Nigeria’s export earnings, foreign reserves.
According to Ripples Nigeria, the Nigerian billionaire businessman stated this during the 2022 Zenith Bank International Trade Seminar on Non-oil Export held recently in Lagos.
The integrated refinery project, which will start processing crude oil refining in the third quarter of this year, would start with a processing capacity of 540,000 barrels per day in the first phase of its operational stage and subsequently move up to 650,000 barrels per day.
The Dangote Group believes that the pipeline infrastructure, which cost an estimated $19bn to build, is designed to process enough crude to meet Nigeria’s fuel demands and turn Africa’s largest crude producer into an exporter of refined crude. In addition, the world-class industrial complex will create a market for $11 billion per annum of Nigerian crude.
Dangote also believes that his $2 billion fertiliser plant will ensure food sufficiency and boost Nigeria’s fertiliser needs. The plant, which has started exporting fertiliser to India, North America and Latin America, will also produce polypropylene, allowing Dangote Group to profit from the global demands of the growing plastic processing downstream industries.
In his statement, Dangote advised the Nigerian government to focus on import and export opportunities, as less attention on the latter affects the country’s economy.
He said: “This exposes the economy to oil price and production risks. Export opportunities abound in Nigeria, but there are two main routes import substitution and export-oriented industries. Import substitution is ideal for economies like Nigeria, which has a large domestic market and a huge import bill.
He also urged the government to build on the country’s competitive advantage to develop industries primarily geared toward export.
“Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) in Bonny is a good example of an export-oriented investment (though it would be good to get a model where such revenues are sold in the I & E window,” he added.
