As one of the activities to be executed at the tail end of his eight-year rule, President Muhammadu Buhari will commission the multi-billion-dollar Dangote Refinery in Lekki, Lagos State on May 22. The announcement was made on Sunday by Bashir Ahmad, Special Assistant on Digital Communications to the President on his official Twitter handle.
“Efforts by the Federal Government to make Nigeria self-sufficient in local refining of crude oil to save the scarce foreign exchange used in the importation of petroleum products have received a boost as the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery, the world’s largest single-train refinery, is set for inauguration on May 22nd, 2023, by President Muhammadu Buhari,” Ahmad said.
Dangote Refinery, owned by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, “is a 650,000 barrels per day (BPD) integrated refinery project in the Lekki Free Zone near Lagos, Nigeria. It is expected to be Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the world’s biggest single-train facility,” according to the Dangote Group.
The refinery is projected to meet Nigeria’s 100 percent refined petroleum needs. This will also support the drive to reduce the pressure on the naira as about 60 percent of Nigeria’s hard-earned foreign exchanges are spent importing refined petroleum products.
Nigerians who reacted to the announcement expressed varied opinions. While some Nigerians saw the commissioning of the refinery as a positive development, other urged the federal government to ensure the state-owned refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna are made to function so as not to turn Dangote Refinery into a monopolist.
A tweep who goes by Lagos Boy on his Twitter handle said it was a positive development.
He said: “This is a great development. However, I am wondering what will be the actual impact of Dangote Refinery on petroleum price in Nigeria. Are we to buy for less? A common man is interested on how and when this refinery will become good news to his pocket not just on paper.”
Another tweep by the name Bobo wanted to find out when state-owned refineries will become operational.
“That is good news and development. However, abandoning other refineries will make Dangote become a monopoly just as Dangote Sugar, Cement etc. Privatize other refineries and give room for competition,” he said.
Akpati Nshiegbe wanted the outing president to hand over functioning state-owned refineries to the incoming administration.
He said: “So, it will be counted as one of Buhari’s achievements even though the construction started before he became the president. Buhari should handover running Kaduna, Warri and PH refineries.”
Nigeria’s budget deficit has reached an alarming proportion on account of the huge amount of money spent on subsidy payment to importers of refined petroleum products.
