Mr. Aliko Dangote, the promoter of the refinery, revealed these plans during his address at the Africa CEO Forum Annual Summit in Kigali, Rwanda, on Friday.
He emphasized that the refinery will cater to the domestic demand for petrol not only in Nigeria but also in other West African nations. Dangote expressed confidence in Nigeria’s ability to halt gasoline imports by June, stating, “Right now, Nigeria has no cause to import anything apart from gasoline. By sometime in June, within the next four or five weeks, Nigeria shouldn’t import anything like gasoline; not one liter. We have enough gasoline to give to at least the entire West Africa. We have enough diesel to give to West Africa and Central Africa.”
Moreover, he highlighted the refinery’s capacity to produce sufficient aviation fuel to meet the continent’s needs and to export to Brazil and Mexico. He noted, “Next month, we will be producing diesel and gasoline.”
Regarding other products, Dangote mentioned, “Today, our (Dangote Refinery) polypropylene and our polyethylene will meet the entire demand of Africa. And we are doing base oil, which is to do like engine oil. We are doing linear benzyl, which is raw material to produce LLB, which is raw material to produce detergent. We have 1.4 billion population and nobody is producing that in Africa.”
He further stated, “Give Dangote Refinery three and a maximum of four years and Africa will not, I repeat, not import any more fertilizer from anywhere. We will make Africa self-sufficient in potash, and phosphate. Even if we don’t have enough, there is a lot in Morocco. But we are also looking at the opportunities. For our urea, we are at three million tonnes and in the next 20 months, we will be at six million tonnes of urea which is the entire capacity of Egypt.”
Dangote detailed the refinery’s capacity, saying, “The refinery has 650,000 barrels per day, one million tonnes of polypropylene, 590,000 carbon black — the raw materials for ink, dyes and others.”
He concluded by emphasizing that the second phase of the refinery will commence in 2025.
