The President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, says the newly-inaugurated Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos State, would start delivering refined products to the Nigerian market from July 2023.

Dangote made the disclosure at the inauguration of the refinery in Lagos on Monday, May 22.

The $18.5 billion refinery with 650,000 barrel production capacity was inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Speaking at the event, the renowned businessman said: “It is our firm commitment that we will replicate in this sector what we have actually achieved in the cement and fertiliser markets, while Nigeria transformed from being the largest importer of these crude products to a net exporter.

“The first goal is to ramp up projections of various production to ensure that within this year, we are able to fully satisfy our nation’s demand for higher quality products to enable us to eliminate the tragedy of import dependency and stop, once and for all, the dumping in our market of toxic substandard petroleum products.

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“Our first products will be in the market before the end of July, beginning of August this year.”

Dangote added that the refinery would export to 53 African countries which depend on other countries for petroleum products.

He stated that the investment of over $18.5 billion in the refinery was prompted by the company’s desire to support and contribute its quota to the Federal Government’s sustained effort to transform Nigeria’s economy.

Dangote said the investment was to also reposition Nigeria as the leading nation in Africa and a respected member among emerging economies in the world.

Also speaking at the event, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, said the Dangote Petroleum Refinery could spare Nigeria about N5 trillion to N7 trillion annually in the fiscal expenditures of the Federal Government over the next five years.

Emefiele added that the project would support the fiscal operations of the government, easing budget constraints of funding fuel subsidy.

The Star