NNPC Refineries May Never Work Again — Dangote – Newstelly

The President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has expressed serious doubt over the possibility of Nigeria’s state-owned refineries — Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna — ever working again.

Speaking on Thursday during a visit by members of the Global CEO Africa programme from the Lagos Business School to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki, Lagos, the billionaire businessman revealed that despite spending around $18 billion on the refineries, they remain non-functional.

Dangote recalled how, in January 2007, his group initially acquired the government-owned refineries, which at the time were only allocating about 22 per cent of their production to Premium Motor Spirit (petrol). However, after the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo ended, the incoming President Umaru Yar’Adua was advised by then refinery managers that the facilities had been sold below their value. As a result, Dangote and his team were compelled to return them to the government.

> “The managing director then convinced Yar’Adua that the refineries would work, claiming they had been given to us as a parting gift,” Dangote said. “Today, they have spent about $18 billion on them, and they’re still not working. I really doubt if they will ever work.”