Aliko Dangote, the President of Dangote Group, has stated that his 650,000 barrels per day oil refinery will commence before the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure.
Addressing journalists after a meeting with Buhari at the presidential villa in Abuja, Dangote assured his audience that the President will commission the project.
“By the grace of God, Mr. President will come and commission it (refinery) before the end of his term next year,” he said.
The 650,000 barrel per day refinery is under construction in Lagos — and has been delayed for several years due to several factors, including project costs from earlier estimates of $12 billion to $14 billion.
Meanwhile, Shubham Chaudhuri, the Country Director of World Bank, has explained that Dangote Refinery will have enormous positive impacts on Nigeria’s economy in terms of value-added.
In a recently-held interview cited by BizWatch Nigeria, where he made this known, Chaudhuri said Nigeria’s revenue will increase due to the Dangote Refinery project, adding that the country’s economy will also benefit in terms of value-added.
His words: “Refining or the ability to refine petroleum products domestically will be great from an economic perspective – in terms of increasing domestic value-added- and will also have some job creation spillovers.
“It is not a solution to the physical problem of PMS subsidy, for the simple reason that it is still going to be a choice; that is if the refined products can be sold at the world price. For the refinery not to sell it at the world price, but to sell at the subsidised price, means that the government is still spending a lot.
“So the fiscal choice will remain and it is a choice for Nigeria to determine whether government revenues are better spent towards subsidising versus reducing the number of out-of-school children, versus reducing the number of children who die before the age of five, which Nigeria is also leading in the world. It would help on the economic front in terms of value-added.“
