For decades, Africa’s biggest oil producer imported most of its fuel like a country without crude oil. Now, Nigerian billionaire Femi Otedola says the man who finally changed that reality is Aliko Dangote.
Speaking during a visit by executives of First HoldCo to the sprawling Dangote refinery and fertiliser complex in Lagos, Otedola described the project as a historic industrial breakthrough that rescued Nigeria and Africa from what he called “economic slavery.”
“What you’ve done is you’ve delivered us from economic slavery in Africa,” Otedola told Dangote.
The remark goes beyond praise between two billionaires.
It reflects a deeper shift underway in Nigeria’s economy as the 650,000-barrels-per-day refinery, Africa’s largest, begins altering fuel trade patterns, foreign exchange demand and industrial power dynamics across the continent.
