Aliko Dangote, president and chief executive of Dangote Industries Limited, has called the 700,000-barrel-per-day Dangote Petroleum Refinery the biggest business risk of his career, telling a visiting delegation from Nigeria’s Ministry of Industry that financiers doubted the project would ever be finished.
The remarks came Wednesday as John Enoh, minister of state for industry, led a tour of the refinery, the adjoining petrochemicals complex and Dangote Fertiliser Limited in Lagos, facilities the government is casting as central to President Bola Tinubu’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy.
Dangote said the project weathered the Covid-19 pandemic, foreign-exchange volatility and skepticism from lenders before coming online. He said its completion proves Nigerian entrepreneurs can execute projects of global scale.
“What we have achieved here has never been done before on this scale,” Dangote said. “Once one person succeeds, many others will be encouraged to follow.”
At full capacity, the refinery will equal roughly 10 percent of United States refining capacity and consume about 2.5 percent of globally traded crude, Dangote said.
