'I wouldn’t have tried' - Dangote speaks on opening first African refinery in 35 years

Aliko Dangote, the richest man in Africa and chairman of the 650, 000 bpd Dangote Refinery at Lekki, Lagos state, said no refining facility has been established in Africa in the past 35 years because the continent's vast fuel imports have benefited many.

In an excerpt from an interview with CNN, Dangote said that even though he had built a $19 billion refinery, he would have reconsidered if he had known in advance how difficult it would be to construct a plant of that size on the continent.

He argued that foreign aid and investments would not build Africa, explaining that Africans would have to develop the continent on their own.

ThisDay reported that Dangote explained that he had to dredge a lot of sand, over 65 million tonnes, before work could start on the project.

The billionaire businessman noted that he and his team carried out the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractors for the project on their own because of the initial difficulties encountered.

He emphasized that a lot of individuals, including those who he claimed discouraged him, did not think the idea would succeed.

He said, “Actually, yes. If I’m going to do it now, I will do it better. Because I’ve learned from experience. But if I knew what I was going to go through, I wouldn’t have tried.”

Dangote clarified that although he had received advice not to take on the enormous undertaking, he believed the advice was merely intended to demoralize him. He said, “They did, but I thought they were just trying to discourage me.

I’ve learned that there are other countries in Africa, all the African countries that have been trying to build refineries, they have not been able to.

There has not been a refinery in the last 35 years. “There are so many issues. I can’t count them, but there are so many. It’s not only money, political will, and also people who are benefiting from this whole stuff of importing petroleum products into Africa are actually discouraging those governments from building a refinery.

“And they won’t get the loans anyway, because they don’t have very strong banks. The international banks will not support anything like this. We’re talking about industrialising the continent, creating a more connected Africa.

He added that the business will continue to search for upstream prospects, such as those in petrochemicals.

He added that he was proud of himself for having completed the building of the Dangote refinery and described the 3 million-ton fertiliser plant that was located close to the refinery.