Aliko Dangote, President of the Dangote Group, has cast doubt on the future functionality of Nigeria’s state-owned refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna, stating that they may never operate again despite having consumed approximately $18 billion in rehabilitation efforts.
Dangote asserted on Thursday while hosting members of the Global CEO Africa network from the Lagos Business School during a tour of the newly built Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki, Lagos.
Speaking during the visit, the billionaire industrialist revealed that the government-owned refineries, currently under the control of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), have so far yielded no results despite massive funding.
They have spent about $18 billion on those refineries, and they are still not working. I don’t think, and I doubt very much, if they will ever work,” Dangote stated.
Dangote recounted the failed attempt by his group to acquire the refineries during the final days of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration in 2007. According to him, although the facilities were successfully bought in January 2007, the deal was reversed after President Umar Musa Yar’Adua came into office.
He disclosed that the reversal came after the then-managing director of the refineries reportedly convinced President Yar’Adua that the sale was a “parting gift” from Obasanjo, and that the government could fix the refineries without private intervention.
The refineries we bought in January 2007 were returned to the government because there was a change of administration. The MD at the time told Yar’Adua the refineries would work and that they were handed over as a parting gift,” Dangote explained.
He also compared the performance of the state refineries to his facility. While the government-owned refineries allocated just 22 per cent of their output to Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), the Dangote refinery, which has a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, currently dedicates over 50 per cent of its output to petrol production.
