Chairman of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has said that Nigeria may have no reason to import petrol from June as his firm’s $20bn refinery can meet West Africa’s petrol and diesel needs, as well as the continent’s aviation fuel demand.
Dangote Petroleum Refinery is set to begin the sale of premium motor spirit.
If this happens, the Federal Government may cut its approximately N6.2tn yearly fuel import bill if the
Dangote, while speaking at the Africa CEO Forum Annual Summit in Kigali, Rwanda at the weekend, assured Nigerians that following the laid-down plans of the Dangote refinery, Nigeria would no longer need to import petrol starting next month.
“Right now, Nigeria has no cause to import anything apart from gasoline and by sometime in June, within the next four or five weeks, Nigeria shouldn’t import anything like gasoline; not one drop of a litre.
“We have enough gasoline to give to at least the entire West Africa, and diesel to give to West Africa and Central Africa. We have enough aviation fuel to give to the entire continent and also export some to Brazil and Mexico.
“We have started producing jet fuel, we are producing diesel, and by next month, we’ll be producing gasoline. What that will do is it will be able to take most African crudes,” he stated.