Africa’s heavy dependence on fuel imports has turned the continent into a dumping ground for substandard petroleum products, Aliko Dangote, has said.
The president of Dangote Industries Limited and Africa’s richest man made the remarks during an interview with journalists, where he highlighted the motivation behind building the $19 billion Dangote Refinery.
He called for urgent investment in Africa’s energy infrastructure.
According to Dangote, the refinery project was born out of a desire to ensure Nigeria’s self-sufficiency in refined petroleum products and encourage similar initiatives across the continent.
He said the current state of affairs is unacceptable, considering Africa’s vast crude oil reserves.
“Apart from Algeria and Libya, which are self-sufficient, virtually every other African country is an importer,” adding that “Africa has no business importing fuel. We have oil, but we have failed to refine it.”
He lamented that the lack of refining capacity has created space for the inflow of poor-quality products that undermine health and environmental standards.
Dangote acknowledged the daunting challenges faced during the construction of the refinery, noting that many doubted the group’s capacity to execute a project of such scale.
“If I had known the scale of challenges we would face, I wouldn’t have started at all,” he said. “But we believed nothing is impossible.”
He stressed that the success of the refinery should serve as a rallying point for African governments and investors to embrace large-scale, transformative projects that tackle pressing socio-economic problems.
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Dangote also called on wealthy Nigerians to invest in the country, warning that real development cannot occur without strong local investments.
“No nation develops without significant investments. I appeal to all wealthy Nigerians to look inward and invest here, in Nigeria, for the future of our unborn kids”, he stated.
The billionaire industrialist criticised the trend of exporting capital abroad, arguing that such practices drain local economies.
“There is hardly any country without corruption, he noted, emphasizing that the difference is that, in those countries, stolen or earned wealth is often reinvested at home to grow the economy.”
He said Africa must now focus on self-reliance, value addition, and sustainable development to meet the needs of its rapidly growing population.