Chairman of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has announced that Nigeria will no longer need to import gasoline, starting next month, following the operational plans of the Dangote Refinery.
This declaration was made during his speech at the Africa CEO Forum Annual Summit in Kigali on Friday, where he expressed optimism about transforming Africa’s energy landscape.
“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 a liter,” Dangote stated.
The Dangote Refinery, commissioned in February, is set to not only meet Nigeria’s petrol and diesel needs but also supply aviation fuel across the continent.
Dangote emphasized the refinery’s capacity to serve West Africa, and Central Africa, and even export to countries like Brazil and Mexico.
“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,” he said.
He outlined the refinery’s achievements and future plans, highlighting its potential to make Africa self-sufficient in several key areas.
“Today, our polypropylene and our polyethylene will meet the entire demand of Africa and we are doing base oil.
Which is like engine oil, we are doing linear benzyl, which is raw material to produce detergent,” Dangote explained.
He added, “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 potash, phosphate, and urea.”
Dangote also reflected on the challenges and skepticism faced during the construction of the refinery, acknowledging the significant pushback from those invested in the status quo.
“The pushback was very impactful because there are people who have been used to just making money trading without a refinery,” he noted.
“Ninety percent of people never believed that we were going to deliver but we have been able to deliver now.”
Despite the hurdles, Dangote emphasized the importance of investing in Africa to avoid the pitfalls of relying on raw material exports.
“When you export raw materials and somebody now keeps importing things into your continent and dumping goods, what you are importing is poverty and exporting jobs.
So, we have to change that narrative,” he urged.
Dangote called on African leaders to support entrepreneurs by ensuring policy consistency to facilitate ease of trading on the continent.
“The major burden on us was that there is no room for failure because we were the EPC contractors and we had to deliver,” he said.
“Policy inconsistency is a major challenge for African entrepreneurs and it needs to be addressed.”
