President Muhammadu Buhari has inaugurated the Dangote petroleum refinery, describing it as a game-changer for the petroleum products market both in Nigeria and Africa.
The president inaugurated the facility on Monday in Lagos as top politicians, industry players, and presidents of African countries, gathered to witness the unveiling of a $19 billion facility, set to revolutionise crude oil refining in Africa.
The milestone inauguration comes a decade after Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest businessman, announced plans for the refinery in September 2013, when he secured about $3.3 billion in financing for the project.
It also comes on the heels of efforts to begin production at the facility failed twice: the first time was in October 2019 when a top official said the project would be ready in 2021.
The second time was in January when Dangote said the refinery would begin processing crude by the third quarter of 2022.
Speaking at the inauguration Buhari said facility has the capacity to process 650,000 barrels a day of crude which would enable “our country to achieve self-sufficiency in refined products, and even have some surplus for export”.
“This clearly makes this event a notable milestone for our economy and a game-changer for the downstream petroleum products market, not only in Nigeria, but the entire African continent,” the president said.
Buhari, stressing on the significance of the project, said Nigeria’s economy has been stressed for many decades by efficiencies in economicinfrastructure and over a decade of insurgency.
He said has also been severely impacted by several external crisis including the global financial crisis, the collapse of oil prices, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
The refinery is also said to be designed for 100 percent Nigerian crude with the flexibility to process other crudes.
Dangote, addressing guests at the event thanked Buhari for his unwavering commitment to the project.
He promised that petroleum products from the refinery would circulate in the Nigerian market soon.
“Our 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” the billionaire said.
“Our first products will be in the market before the end of July, beginning of August this year.”