How Emefiele moved mountains to ensure completion of $18.5bn refinery –Dangote

President and Chief Executive of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has applauded the immense support of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, saying he moved mountains to ensure the realisation of the $18.5 billion Dangote Oil Refinery and Petrochemicals Complex.

Dangote’s warm acknowledgement is contained in a speech he delivered at the commissioning of the complex in Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos State on Monday.

According to him: “Without Governor Emiefele’s courageous support and backing, this project would not have stood a chance of successful completion”.

He added that outside Dangote’s board and management, the CBN Governor remains the most frequent visitor to the complex, all in his efforts to ensure the project moved from dream to reality.

Dangote also appreciated President Muhammadu Buhari, Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-olu and other personalities who supported the project.

He revealed that the first product from the 650,000 bpd refinery would hit the market before the end of July this year, adding that the company’s key objective was to ramp up production of the various products to satisfy local demand and ultimately eliminate the tragedy of import dependency and dumping of toxic, sub-standard petroleum products in the country.

He said: “We have built a refinery with a capacity to process 650,000 barrels per day of crude oil (plus 900,000 tonnes of polypropylene) in a single train – which is the largest in the world.

Our products slate is designed to meet the highest quality standards of high-value products including Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), Automotive Gas Oil (Diesel), Aviation Turbine Kerosine (ATK); all of Euro V Standards

“Beyond this, we intend to ensure that our plants are run at the highest capacity utilisation and highest efficiency to enable us to export competitively to other markets, especially in the ECOWAS and the wider Africa Region in which 53 countries out of 55 are dependent on imports to meet their petroleum products demand”.

Also speaking, the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, said the complex houses a refinery, petrochemical plant, a urea fertiliser plant, and a subsea pipeline project.

He said that the funding for the $18.5 billion complex was distributed into 50 percent equity investment and 50 percent debt finance.

“I am proud to state that the commercial loan component of the project was financed majorly by our domestic banks with the balance sourced from foreign banks.”

“The Central Bank of Nigeria also partnered, as always, with the Dangote Group in ensuring the successful completion of the project by providing about N125 billion, to cover domestic currency requirements for the venture”, Emefiele stated.

He revealed that Dangote Group has started repaying some of the commercial loans even before the commissioning of the facility.

He added that following extensive repayments, outstanding debt has dropped appreciably from over US$9 billion to US$3 billion.

“I must at this juncture appreciate all the participating local Nigerian banks, who did not only partner with the project through effective financing but were keenly aware of the importance of the project for our nation”, he said.

Emefiele expressed optimism that Nigeria will cease importing petroleum products, fertilizers and petrochemicals that drained over US$26 billion in 2022.

The CBN Governor added that the project will have enormous impact on job creation by generating thousands of direct jobs and millions of indirect jobs, with over 135,000 permanent jobs.

“I understand that, so far, there are nearly 4,000 Nigerian personnel on site, excluding employment by the various contractors and subcontractors at the project site. I am also proud to state that the project will generate up to 12,000MW of electricity”, he said.

Emefiele further stated that the refinery could save Nigeria between US$25 billion and US$30 billion annually in foreign exchange.

“The impact of this savings will be directly reflected in Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves by reducing the pressure on our balance of payments. There are also substantial benefits that we will gain from the export of refined products to the rest of the world. In addition to the nearly US$30 billion foreign exchange savings from the reduction in petroleum imports, the economy is projected to benefit an extra US$10 billion of foreign exchange inflow annually through the export of refined petroleum products, which will further boost our official reserves and enhance exchange rate stability”, he added.