By Abiola Olawale
Africa’s richest person and Nigerian business mogul has revealed how some powerful people who were enjoying proceeds from fuel importation tried to discourage him from building the 650, 000 bpd Dangote Refinery near Lekki, Lagos state.
During an interview with the press, Dangote said that the absence of operational refining facilities in Nigeria and Africa as a whole is because certain individuals within government circles who are seeking to continue benefiting from substantial fuel imports into the continent.
Dangote added that although he had gained so much experience from building the $19 billion refinery, he would have a rethink if he had known beforehand the huge challenge of building such a facility on the continent.
When asked if he would have embarked upon it knowing how hard it was going to be, 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.”
He explained that he was warned not to embark on the humongous project, but that he thought they were only trying to discourage him.
“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, but 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 onmoneyney, and politics but also people who are benefiting from this whole stuff of importing petroleum products into Africa are who 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.
“But we have to make sure we focus and say, look, we are the only ones that can deliver. We Africans are the only people that can develop Africa. If we’re waiting for foreigners or foreign investors to come and develop Africa, it will never happen,” he stated.
