Aliko Dangote, Chairman of the Dangote Group, announced that with the plans in place at the Dangote Refinery, Nigeria will no longer need to import gasoline by next month.
Speaking at the Africa CEO Forum Annual Summit in Kigali, Dangote revealed that the refinery, which is already supplying diesel and aviation fuel in Nigeria, can meet the diesel and petrol needs of West Africa and the aviation fuel demand of the entire African continent.
“Right now, Nigeria has no reason to import anything apart from gasoline, and by June, within the next four or five weeks, Nigeria shouldn’t import a single drop of gasoline,” he stated.
Dangote highlighted the progress of the refinery and its focus on reducing the continent’s dependency on imports.
“We have enough gasoline for the entire West Africa, diesel for West and Central Africa, and aviation fuel for the whole continent, with some to spare for Brazil and Mexico,” he said.
“Our polypropylene and polyethylene production will meet Africa’s needs, and we’re producing base oil for engine oil and linear alkyl benzene for detergents.
These raw materials are currently imported, but we aim to make Africa self-sufficient.”
He also emphasized the refinery’s role in making Africa self-sufficient in fertilizers.
“In three to four years, Africa will not import any more fertilizers. We’ll produce enough potash, phosphate, and urea to meet our needs.
In twenty months, we’ll double our urea production to six million tonnes, matching Egypt’s capacity.”
Dangote shared his vision of investing in Africa and ending fuel importation, resulting in one of the world’s largest refineries.
“Despite the boom in the US capital market with companies like Google and Microsoft, we chose to invest in Africa.
We aimed to grow from five billion dollars in revenue to thirty billion, and we made it happen. Now, our refinery is complete.”
“Our refinery is vital for Africa. Currently, only Algeria and Libya don’t import petroleum products.
The rest of the continent does, which we need to change. We should produce finished products to create jobs,” he continued. “Exporting raw materials while importing finished goods brings poverty and exports jobs. We must change this.”
“We started producing jet fuel and diesel in February, and by next month, we’ll be producing gasoline.
This will allow us to use African crude oil to supply not only Nigeria but also West, Central, and South Africa.
Our refinery has a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, one million tonnes of polypropylene, and 590,000 tonnes of carbon black.
We’re already planning the next phase, starting early next year,” Dangote concluded.
