By Miracle Ogunde
Following the announcement of Dangote refinery’s partnership with MRS Petrol station to sell petrol from its retail outlets nationwide at N935 per litre to the delight of Nigerians, the Chairman of Dangote group, Akoko Dangote has spoken on the reason behind the move.
Dangote said that the recent price reduction in fuel price is a response to the market, adding that it is his responsibility to safeguard both the interests and the investments of the multibillion dollar company.
He stated this during an interview in an Arise TV documentary.
“The price reduction is a response to the market, let me just put it that way. It is a refinery where we invested over $20bn and I think we have to try and protect our interests and also our investments,” he said.
Dangote reiterated that the 650,000 barrels per day refinery will not only transform Nigeria’s oil sector but also the country’s entire economy.
He stressed that when the country imports petroleum products, there is more pressure on foreign exchange.
“40 per cent of our demand on foreign exchange is through people dealing in petroleum products and the more we allow imports to come in, not because I do not want imports, but the more we allow imports to come in, the more we keep using most of our foreign exchange out of the country because the majority of those letters of credit open for petroleum products and the goods are not coming into Nigeria.”
“There is nothing you would do that you won’t get criticism for. But I think we cannot also control people from speaking their minds.”
Dangote reiterated that he was open to criticism, adding that in the history of Nigeria, in the last 100 years, “nobody has put in $20bn in any project”.
“Criticism will not stop us from continuing with what we are doing. I did this project because of my love for my country and to make sure that I have a legacy project. If I invested this money in Google or Apple, my investment would be more, and I wouldn’t be having the headache that I’m having today.
“So, I think it is patriotism that made me do this. I would rather leave a legacy behind. I’m not a rich man. I’m a wealthy man. And wealthy people, what they do is to create work for the generality of people, not to amass cash for themselves.”
He further described the $1bn investment by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company in the refinery as “a drop in the ocean.”
“In 2021, when we signed the agreement, even if you give us $1bn, $1bn is a drop in the ocean in a $20bn refinery,” Dangote said.
“When NNPC said, ‘Give us one more year, we want to change the agreement, we would rather pay you cash,’ because people didn’t understand this issue about the $2 deduction on the crude.
“Can we make sure that there’s clarity around it? So what do you want? So they said they would pay us cash, and we should give them one more year.
“We gave them one more year. So from June last year to June this year. So on June 4th or 5th, I called NNPC and they gave us a week.”
Dangote said sometime later, the NNPC decided to back out of the transaction abruptly when the payment was due.
“I said, okay, fine. We just walked away and we just continued. But we still went ahead, we finished our refinery. Our refinery is operating,” he said.
On December 19, 2024, the Dangote refinery reduced the ex-depot price of its petrol from N970 to N899.50 per litre.
This sparked intense pricing competition in the downstream sector, forcing the NNPCLto to reduce its ex-depot price to N899 per litre.
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