President of Dangote Industries and Dangote Refinery, Aliko Dangote has stated he sees no new refinery coming up in his lifetime stating the current state of the country’s oil & gas sector does not encourage investment in refining.
Africa’s richest man stated this in a recent interview with Arise TV’s Ojy Okpe in the lead up to the refinery’s IPO stating “I see no new refinery coming up in my lifetime.
“The lack of protection for local industries does not encourage anyone to build a new refinery.”
Recalling the risks he took to bring the refinery project to fruition, the billionaire said “The risk that I took to build this refinery and our fertilizer business. The risk that we took as a group to transform when we suffered a lot in the exchange rate losses to now dollarize our businesses. So, this risk really paid off, especially to do with the refinery.
“Nobody ever gave us a chance that this refinery would ever work. But we took that risk. I believe so much in it.
“Not only that, I gave all my assets as collateral for just a meager loan of $3.7 billion. All your assets? I gave all of them. On top of that, even the banks requested that I should give a personal guarantee.”
He further reiterated his assertion that despite there been more people financially liquid than he is, the risks associated with undertaking a project as big as the refinery is too much for most people to bear.
This he says can be attributed to a lack of protection for domestic industries stating “The government has to create policies to protect Nigerian entrepreneurs. They have to create policies. That’s the only reason that they invite people in.
“Government can talk to people every day, a hundred times. Nobody will invest.”
