President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has revealed that powerful interests in Nigeria’s oil sector allegedly tried to frustrate the construction of the $20 billion Dangote Petroleum Refinery, fearing it would disrupt the long-standing fuel import business in the country.
Speaking during an interview with Nicolai Tangen, Chief Executive Officer of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, Dangote said some fuel importers resisted the refinery project because it threatened a system that allowed massive importation of refined petroleum products despite Nigeria being one of Africa’s biggest crude oil producers.
According to him, the persistent fuel scarcity and endless queues at filling stations over the years pushed him to pursue the refinery project in order to improve Nigeria’s energy security and reduce dependence on imported fuel.
Dangote explained that Nigerians had endured fuel shortages for decades, with many people spending hours and sometimes days trying to buy petrol, especially during festive periods, despite the country’s oil wealth.
He said the failure of government-owned refineries motivated him to take the risk of building what has become one of the world’s largest single-train refineries.
The billionaire businessman disclosed that the project, which officially started in 2013, faced several obstacles from the beginning, including major delays in land acquisition that reportedly lasted five years.
He alleged that some of the difficulties were deliberately created by entrenched interests within the oil sector — which he described as a “mafia” — determined to stop the project from succeeding.
Despite the setbacks, Dangote said he remained committed to completing the refinery because of its importance to Nigeria and the African continent.
He also highlighted the massive financial and engineering challenges involved in the project, revealing that the company had to build critical infrastructure from scratch because existing facilities in Nigeria could not support the scale of the refinery.
According to him, the group constructed its own port to receive heavy equipment, some weighing up to 3,000 tonnes, while also building roads, water systems and other supporting infrastructure.
Dangote further explained that the refinery’s water treatment facility alone covers over 30 hectares and processes about 440 million litres of treated water.
He recalled how the sharp depreciation of the naira also increased the project cost significantly, noting that the exchange rate moved from around ₦156 per dollar when the project began to as high as ₦1,900 per dollar at one stage.
Despite the economic pressure and uncertainty, he said the company continued pushing forward with the construction.
The industrialist disclosed that approximately 67,000 workers participated in the refinery project, describing the workforce as almost equal to the population of the town where he grew up.
He admitted that the project’s scale was so enormous that fully understanding it from the beginning might have discouraged him from starting it.
Dangote likened the experience to “swimming across the ocean,” explaining that once the company reached the middle of the project, there was no turning back.
He also acknowledged the financial institutions that supported the refinery, including the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), African Finance Corporation, Zenith Bank, Access Bank, United Bank for Africa, Standard Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.
According to him, the support from these institutions played a major role in ensuring the refinery was completed successfully.
Dangote added that the refinery’s performance after completion has exceeded expectations, describing the project as a major breakthrough for Nigeria’s industrial and energy sector.
