Development
Dangote’s World Largest Refinery Spells a New Era for Africa By Peter Burdin
A GIANT NEW OIL REFINERY in Nigeria is set to transform Africa’s largest crude producer into an exporter of refined oil. The $19 billion refinery complex, built by Dangote Industries includes a petrochemical plant, a fertilizer plant and a pipeline project in addition to the oil refinery. It is the largest single-train refinery in the world, employing some 38,000 people, in 2022. After a tour of the site, the President of the African Development Bank Dr. Akinwumi Adesina called it “the best-industrialized project to happen to Africa” spelling a new era for Africa’s industrialization and development. “I am completely blown away with what I saw here. This project will reverse the huge sum the nation spends on foreign exchange importing petroleum products. So this is huge for Nigeria and for Africa as a continent.” According to Dangote Industries Group Dangote Industries Group Executive Director Devakumar Edwin the refinery will make Nigeria selfsufficient in gasoline, diesel, kerosene and aviation fuel and will deliver a surplus of each of these for export. Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, chairman of Dangote Industries, said that the plant will start processing crude in the third quarter of this year with a processing capacity of 540,000 barrels a day with full production of 650,000 barrels a day by the end of the year. Mr. Dangote praised Dr. Adesina and the African Development Bank for encouraging him to build this huge project and investing a $300 million loan to support its construction: “Without that support, there is no way we could have succeeded in building this massive industrial plant. This is a major revolution and it will definitely put Nigeria on the map”. For his part Dr. Adesina explained why the bank 34
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had invested in the Refinery project: “We have invested about $300 million in Dangote because we have faith and confidence in him. And, in fact, every nation needs Dangote, we shall continue to support African champions. Most importantly our human resources and infrastructural development must be our top priority”. Mr. Dangote hinted that he may well be in the market for some future projects in collaboration with Dr. Adesina and the African Development Bank. During the inaugural tour of the new refinery, they talked about setting up further industrial manufacturing on the continent to boost skillssharing and job creation. The two men go back quite a long way. Dr. Adesina is fond of telling the story of how he encouraged Mr. Dangote to alter his business plan: “He and I used to have a lot of arguments about DAWN
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