Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man and Chairman of the Dangote Group, following the operational plans of the refinery has announced that Nigeria will no longer need to import gasoline starting next month.
This was made known by the Chairman of the Refinery while speaking at the Africa CEO Forum Annual Summit in Kigali on Friday.
Dangote expressed confidence in the refinery’s ability to not only meet Nigeria’s fuel demands but also supply petrol and diesel to West Africa and aviation fuel across the continent.
However, he highlighted the refinery’s potential to significantly transform Africa’s energy landscape, marking a major milestone in the continent’s economic development.
“Right now, Nigeria has no cause to import anything apart from gasoline and by sometime in June, within the next four or five weeks, Nigeria shouldn’t import anything like gasoline; not one drop of litre.”
“We have enough gasoline to give to at least the entire West Africa, diesel to give to West Africa and Central Africa. We have enough aviation fuel to give to the entire continent and also export some to Brazil and Mexico.”
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“Today, our polypropylene and our polyethylene will meet the entire demand of Africa today and we are doing base oil, which is like engine oil, we are doing linear benzyl, which is raw material to produce detergent.”
“We have 1.4 billion people in population, nobody is producing that in Africa.
So, all the raw materials for our detergents are imported. We are producing that raw material to make Africa self-sufficient.”
“As I said, give us three or a maximum of four years and Africa will not, I repeat, not import any more fertilizer from anywhere.”
“We will make Africa self-sufficient in both potash, phosphate, and urea, we are at three million tonnes and in the next twenty months, we will be at six million tonnes of urea which is the entire capacity of Egypt. We are getting there.”
“We had this dream, just about five years ago and we said we want to move from five billion (dollars) revenue to thirty billion revenue and we made it happen. It is possible and now we have made it happen and now we have actually finished our own refinery.”
“Our refinery is quite big, it is something that we believe that Africa needs. If you look at the whole continent, there are only two countries that don’t import petroleum products which is a tragedy. They are only Algeria and Libya. The rest are all importers.”
Dangote further detailed the significant progress made by his oil company to ensure that Africa moves toward self-sufficiency in the energy sector.
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He elaborated on the various initiatives and advancements undertaken by the Dangote Refinery, emphasizing its role in bolstering the continent’s energy independence.
By increasing local production and reducing reliance on imported fuels, the refinery aims to foster economic growth and stability throughout Africa.
Dangote’s vision includes not only meeting immediate energy needs but also setting the foundation for a more resilient and self-reliant energy infrastructure across the continent.