The President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has said that without the support of the would not have stood a chance of successful completion.
Africa’s richest man disclosed this during the commissioning of the project in Lagos on Monday, saying that Emiefele moved mountains to ensure the success of the project.
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“As in most mega projects, financing has been a source of many significant challenges. Governor Emefiele’s belief in and commitment to this project has been awesome. Without Governor Emiefele courageous support and backing, this project would not have stood a chance of successful completion. Governor Emiefele moved mountains to ensure the success of this project. Indeed, apart from the top Management of the Refinery itself, no one in this gathering has visited this site more times than Governor Emefiele,” he said.
The cost of the 650,000 barrel per day refinery which was commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari is $18.5 billion. Apart from mobilising domestic banks to finance the 50% loan component of the project, the CBN provided about N125 billion, to cover domestic currency requirements for the venture.
Dangote also commended Lagos for supporting the private sector to thrive.
“Those like me, who have made Lagos our home will testify that since the beginning of the current democratic dispensation, the government of Lagos State has been exceptionally remarkable in its commitment and support for the private sector,” he said.
On his part, Emefiele while commending Dangote for the successful completion of the refinery project said it would not only aid the nation’s domestic petrol needs, but also help in generating export revenues.
He stressed that the refinery is a testament to Buhari’s vision for Nigeria to be self-sufficient in all products it consumes and a demonstration of the undying spirit of Nigerians to achieve success against all odds.
“It shows that, regardless of what the world thinks, Nigeria can be self-sufficient in all products that we consume and at the same time export our excess output to the rest of the world. Your Excellencies, this brings to mind, the events leading to Nigeria’s eviction from the JP Morgan index in 2015 following their pessimism on Nigeria’s outlook and our ability to take charge of our fortune. We explained the ongoing efforts to diversify our economic base, through import substation and export promotion strategies, to sustainably attain self-sufficiency. They were skeptical, saying that Nigeria typically crafts brilliant policies that could engender diversification but lacked the ability to fully implement them. Even when we insisted that, under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, that the ongoing efforts will be effectively implemented to diversify the economy and make us globally competitive; they still doubted us,” he said.
The Dangote refinery which has the capacity to process 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day, is the largest single-train refinery in the world. Given this processing capacity, the refinery is more than able to meet all of Nigeria’s domestic fuel consumption, which is about 450,000 barrels per day; whilst the excess production will be available for export
