Aliko Dangote, head of Dangote Group, claims that when fully operational, the company’s $2 billion petrochemical facility would position Nigeria as one of Africa’s leading petrochemical centres.
Dangote announced this in a statement signed by Francis Awowole-Browne, media and communication officer at Dangote Industries Limited in Lagos, on Sunday.
He said that the 900,000-metric-tonne-per-year facility, which would be built alongside the 650,000-barrel-per-day Dangote Petroleum Refinery, would improve Nigeria’s non-oil export profits and assure the sufficient of petroleum products.
According to him, the plant would produce polypropylene strategically, to cater to the demands of the growing plastic processing downstream industries, not only in Africa but in other parts of the world.
Dangote disclosed that the plant, reputed to be the largest single train greenfield petroleum refinery in the world, is at an advanced stage of completion.
He said the plant was expected to export much more than eight million tons of petroleum products annually after meeting domestic consumption, while about 900,000 tons of polypropylene is also expected from the petrochemical plant.
Dangote emphasised the need for the government to unlock the potential of petrochemical exports by completing the OB3 Pipeline to make gas available to manufacturers.
He said there is a need to prioritise financing of gas infrastructure, gas allocation to the domestic market, and the fiscal framework to make the supply of gas to domestic market attractive for oil companies.
He said the country’s non-oil exports were quite low, compared to other African top oil producers, as he stressed the need for improvement.
He further urged the federal government to build on the country’s competitive advantage to develop industries that were primarily geared towards exports.
