Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, says that the quality of petroleum refined at the Dangote Refinery will be on par with that produced in other parts of the world.

The serial entrepreneur made this announcement at a press conference on Tuesday, September 3, when he revealed the launch of the first batch of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol.

The $20 billion refinery, constructed by billionaire businessman Aliko Dangote, commenced operations in January, initially focusing on diesel and aviation fuel production.

This marks the first time in 28 years that Nigeria will be producing fuel locally.

"This is the sample of the petrol. You see it like a different color but that is the real colour. So you are now going to have good petrol, where the engines of your vehicle will last longer. You won't be having engine issues like a lot of us were having."

"The quality here will match that of any country in the world. No one will beat us in terms of quality. It is a celebration day"

Dangote said the product will hit the Nigerian market when it has finalized modalities with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).

“As soon as we finalise with the NNPCL, our product will start going into the market.

“We will help to restore industry and manufacturing. We will begin real import substitution, which is what we have, you know, saving foreign exchange, earning foreign exchange, which will stabilise the naira, and it will also help bring down inflation and cost of living,” he stated.

Last December, Dangote, Africa’s leading industrialist, commenced operations at his $20bn facility sited in Lagos with 350,000 barrels a day.

The refinery, which was initially bogged by regulatory battles, hopes to achieve its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day by the end of the year.

The refinery has begun the supply of diesel and aviation fuel to marketers in the country and now petrol.