Nigeria to End Fuel Imports by June, Says Dangote

In a landmark announcement at the African CEO Forum Annual Summit in Kigali, Rwanda, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Chairman of Dangote Group, declared that Nigeria will cease importing petroleum products by June 2024. This development is driven by the operationalization of the Dangote Refinery, which has the capacity to meet the petroleum demands of West Africa, including gasoline, diesel, and aviation fuel.

“By sometime in June, within the next four or five weeks, Nigeria shouldn’t import any gasoline; not one drop,” Dangote stated. He emphasized the refinery’s ability to supply sufficient gasoline for West Africa, diesel for West and Central Africa, and aviation fuel for the entire continent, with additional exports to Brazil and Mexico.

The refinery, which is also set to produce polypropylene and polythene, aims to make Africa self-sufficient in key industrial materials. Dangote highlighted the continent’s reliance on imported raw materials for detergents and pledged to change this narrative within three to four years, ensuring Africa no longer needs to import fertilizer by reaching a production capacity of six million tonnes of potash, phosphate, and urea.

Dangote shared insights into the refinery’s establishment, noting the group’s strategic investments in Africa despite global market opportunities. “We had this dream, just about five years ago, and we said we want to move from five billion dollars revenue to thirty billion, and we made it happen,” he remarked. The refinery, described as the largest single-train refinery in the world, has a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day of crude oil and 900,000 metric tons of polypropylene.

Commissioned by former President Muhammadu Buhari a year ago, the refinery’s impact extends beyond Nigeria. “If you look at the whole continent, there are only two countries that don’t import petroleum products, which is a tragedy,” Dangote pointed out, referring to Algeria and Libya. He stressed the importance of producing finished products domestically to create jobs and reduce poverty.