By Paul Joseph
President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has disclosed that entrenched interests in Nigeria’s oil sector almost sabotaged the construction of the $20 billion Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
Dangote made the revelation during an interview with Chief Executive Officer of Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, Nicolai Tangen, where he reflected on the challenges encountered while delivering what is regarded as Africa’s largest refinery project.
According to the billionaire industrialist, powerful interests benefiting from Nigeria’s long-standing dependence on imported petroleum products resisted the refinery project because it threatened established trade networks and profit channels.
He explained that his decision to build the refinery was driven by years of recurring fuel scarcity and endless queues at filling stations despite Nigeria being one of the world’s major crude oil producers.
“We looked at oil. Africa produces oil, but many countries don’t refine it. They export crude and import refined products, which drains foreign reserves,” Dangote said.
“In Nigeria, we had fuel queues for more than 50 years. People queued for days during Christmas just to buy petrol in an oil-producing country. Government refineries were not functioning properly, so I decided to take the bold step of building a refinery.”
Dangote revealed that although the refinery project was launched in 2013, acquiring land for the facility delayed the process by five years.
“Some of these obstacles were created by entrenched interests in the oil business — what you might call a mafia — trying to stop us from solving these problems. But we stayed focused,” he stated.
The businessman also recounted the enormous financial and logistical hurdles faced during construction, including exchange rate volatility and the need to build key infrastructure from scratch.
“When we started, the naira exchange rate was ₦156 to the dollar. At one point it went as high as ₦1,900, but we still continued,” he said.
He explained that the company had to construct its own port because existing Nigerian ports could not handle the massive equipment needed for the project.
“Some individual pieces weighed up to 3,000 tonnes. We built roads, water infrastructure and other facilities from scratch. The refinery alone uses 440 million litres of treated water,” he added.
Dangote further revealed that about 67,000 workers were engaged during the construction phase, describing the scale of the refinery as overwhelming.
“Honestly, we were lucky we didn’t fully understand the enormity of what we were building at the beginning. If I had seen the full scale immediately, I might have chickened out,” he said.
He likened the experience to “swimming across the ocean,” saying there was no option but to continue once the project had begun.
Dangote also acknowledged the support received from African and Nigerian financial institutions, including the African Export-Import Bank, African Finance Corporation, Zenith Bank, Access Bank, United Bank for Africa, Standard Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.
According to him, the refinery’s eventual completion exceeded expectations and is expected to strengthen Nigeria’s energy security and reduce dependence on imported refined petroleum products.
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