Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, is calling off plans to invest in a new steel plant in Nigeria after the government accused him of seeking to become a monopoly with his new refinery in the West African nation.
“Our own board has decided that we should not have the steel plant. If we do, we will be called all sorts of names,” Dangote said at a media briefing Saturday at the refinery in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub.
The billionaire had announced earlier this year that once his mega-refinery was fully operational, his next investment venture is to start construction of a 5,000 ton steel plant that will supply the product to the West African market.
“Let other Nigerians also go and do it, because we are not the only Nigerians here, there are even some Nigerians with even more cash,” Dangote said. “They should bring in that money from Dubai and from other parts of the world to come and invest in our own Fatherland.”
The Nigerian government last week claimed Dangote had requested the suspension of imports of diesel and aviation fuel in a move that would hand his refinery a monopoly on their sale in Africa’s most populous nation
The accusations of monopoly is really “very disheartening,” Dangote said. “Whatever Dangote was given, other people too were given. In fact, some of them, they even got more than us.”
The $20 billion Dangote Refinery, which became operational in January, currently produces aviation fuel, naphtha and diesel. The billionaire said he paid $100 million to buy the land in the free trade zone where his refinery is currently located in Lagos.
Dangote also denied allegations from the Nigerian downstream regulator that diesel produced from his refinery is inferior to those imported into the country. Tests conducted in his refinery’s lab showed that diesel produced from the refinery has 87 ppm sulfur while two imported varieties had tested in excess of 1,800 ppm, Dangote said, adding that the target is to achieve 10 ppm of sulfur by the end of the month.
The company exports the majority of its diesel currently to customers including Trafigura, Vitol, BP and TotalEnergies.
The refinery intends to start production of gasoline from August, which will take its output to about 550,000 barrels a day by the end of the year from about 350,000 barrels a day currently.
The construction of the refinery is almost done, said Olakunle Alake, vice president of the Dangote Industries Ltd. “One or two units are being finalized and by August we should have just one item to complete,” Alake said.
Bloomberg
