By Abiola Olawale
Africa’s richest man and President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has delivered a scathing assessment of Nigeria’s state-owned refineries, declaring that the facilities in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna may never function again despite a staggering $18 billion spent on their rehabilitation.
Speaking during a tour of his 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Lekki with members of the Global CEO Africa from the Lagos Business School, Dangote likened attempts to revive the aging refineries to modernizing a 40-year-old car in an era of advanced technology.
He said: “The refineries that we bought before, which were owned by Nigeria, were doing about 22 per cent of PMS. We bought the refineries in January 2007. Then we had to return them to the government because there was a change of government.
“And the managing director at that time convinced Yar’adua that the refineries would work. They said they just gave them to us as a parting gift or so. And as of today, they have spent about $18bn on those refineries, and they are still not working. And I don’t think, and I doubt very much if they will work.”
“(The turnaround maintenance) is like you trying to modernise a car that was built 40 years ago, when technology and everything had changed. Even if you change the engine, the body will not be able to take the shock of that new technology engine.”
Recall that former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration had last year expressed similar position, adding that the NNPC was aware that it could not operate the refineries.
He said some investors, including Aliko Dangote, had paid about $750 million to take over the refineries; however, his successor, Yar’adua, aborted the transaction.
The New Diplomat reports that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), which manages the refineries, has faced mounting criticism for its inability to restore operations at these facilities.
Despite significant investments, including a reported $2.4 billion since 2021 and earlier expenditures totaling about $18 billion, the refineries remain non-operational.
