Aliko Dangote has cast serious doubt on the future of Nigeria’s state-owned refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna, suggesting they may never become operational again despite the enormous investments sunk into them.
Speaking in Lagos on Thursday while hosting members of the Global CEO Africa from the Lagos Business School, the billionaire industrialist revealed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited had already spent a staggering $18 billion on the refineries without success.
During the visit, which included a tour of his 650,000-barrel-per-day Dangote Refinery in Lekki, Dangote noted that his facility allocates over half of its production capacity to Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), a stark contrast to the government-owned refineries which only dedicated about 22 per cent to petrol output.
He recounted that his earlier bid to acquire the refineries was reversed under President Umaru Yar’Adua’s administration, despite being approved by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. According to him, managers of the facilities at the time had convinced Yar’Adua that Obasanjo had sold them off cheaply as a farewell favour to him.
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“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,” he said.
Dangote emphasised that the turnaround maintenance of the refineries was like trying to modernise a car built 40 years ago, when technology has advanced.
“(The turnaround maintenance) is like you trying to modernise a car that was built 40 years ago, when technology and everything have changed. Even if you change the engine, the body will not be able to take the shock of that new technology engine,” he stated.
Aliko Dangote’s recent remarks have echoed those of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who last year criticised Nigeria’s failed refinery revamp efforts. Despite being declared operational in late 2024 by Mele Kyari, the former Group Managing Director of NNPC, two of the refineries were soon shut down again.
Obasanjo had at the time insisted that NNPC lacked the capacity to run the ageing facilities. He revealed that even major international oil companies, including Shell, declined his administration’s request to manage the refineries, further underscoring their unviability under government control.