While speaking at the site of his refinery in Lekki, Lagos, Dangote said: “Today, Nigeria imports 100% of its fertilizer, but when we finish, Nigeria will be the largest exporter of Urea and Ammonia in Africa. The
refinery is the largest single line in Africa and it will meet our total domestic requirement and save foreign exchange. .
38% of CBN’s foreign exchange is spent on importation of petroleum products. But we can serve the whole West African market. We are going to serve the whole domestic market in the next 10 years and also export. We have actually been doing this for a very long time to diversify the economy. .
The government will lay down the policies. The CBN will assist in terms of long-term funding through the banks and even directly now because they have actually helped us quite a lot. That is what we are now trying to do.” .
Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor, who was also at the Dangote free trade zone site of the refinery, said the CBN would provide the needed foreign exchange for the refinery, adding that the refinery, upon completion, would generate $6 bn in foreign exchange for Nigeria. .
His words: “Imagine what would happen to the savings in foreign exchange by the time the fertilizer plant is completed in 2017 and by the time the refinery and petrochemical plant is completed during the early part of 2018. .
We expect that by the time these projects are completed, they will not only meet the needs of our domestic requirements – by the time they are completed, he (Dangote) will be exporting these products to the point where he will be selling foreign exchange to Nigerians and CBN to the tune of almost $6bn yearly. .
That is the kind of project we think we should support and we think that we need to encourage more Nigerians to begin to think like Aliko Dangote.” The refinery is expected to cost about N2.8 trillion and refine about 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day…… ds Dangote is jst an attention seeker aswear…….
