With barely weeks to his exit from office, President Muhammadu Buhari will on May 22 commission the Dangote Refinery in Lagos, his Special Assistant on Digital Communications, Bashir Ahmad, has revealed.
METROWATCHXTRA.COM reports that the Dangote refinery is dubbed as Africa’s biggest oil refinery and world’s biggest single-train facility, and expected to generate at least 9,500 direct and 25,000 indirect jobs.
Taking to Twitter, Ahmad said: “Efforts by the Federal Government to make Nigeria self-sufficient in local refining of crude oil to save the scarce foreign exchange used in the importation of petroleum products have received a boost as the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery, the world’s largest single-train refinery, is set for inauguration on May 22nd, 2023, by President Muhammadu Buhari.”
The 650,000 barrels per day (BPD) Dangote integrated refinery project — estimated to cost Africa’s richest man $19 billion naira to build — is located in the Lekki free trade zone area of Lagos state.
METROWATCHXTRA.COM recalls that Aliko Dangote, Chairman of the Dangote Group, had last year said his oil refinery would be commissioned before the end of Buhari’s tenure.
The federal government consequently announced that it would acquire a 20% equity stake in the Refinery. Months later, government approved the sum of $2.76 billion for acquisition of the 20% minority equity stake in the refinery.
Pundits believe that the Dangote Refinery’s output would be more than enough to meet Nigeria’s fuel demands and turn the Africa’s largest crude oil producer into an exporter of refined crude.
