By Chinasaokwu Helen Okoro
The President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has made an offer to sell the Dangote Refinery to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited.Speaking in an exclusive interview with Premium Times on Sunday, the businessman expressed his willingness to sell the refinery to address allegations of monopoly in the industry.He stated that if the NNPCL takes over the refinery, the allegations of monopoly would no longer be valid.Let them (NNPCL) buy me out and run the refinery the best way they can. They have labelled me a monopolist. That’s an incorrect and unfair allegation, but it’s OK. If they buy me out, at least, their so-called monopolist would be out of the way.We have been facing fuel crisis since the 70s. This refinery can help in resolving the problem but it does appear some people are uncomfortable that I am in the picture. So I am ready to let go, let the NNPC buy me out, run the refinery,” Premium Times quoted him as saying.This is coming after the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed, made claims that the Dangote refinery had requested the regulator to stop giving import licences to other marketers to be the only fuel supplier in Nigeria.We cannot rely heavily on one refinery to feed the nation, because Dangote is requesting that we should suspend or stop importation of all petroleum products, especially AGO and direct all marketers to the refinery, that is not good for the nation in terms of energy security. And that is not good for the market, because of monopoly,” Ahmed stated in a video interview with State House correspondents.Ahmed also alleged that the refinery’s product is inferior.In terms of quality, currently the AGO quality in terms of sulphur is the lowest as far as the West African requirement of 50 ppm is concerned.“Dangote refinery and some modular refineries, like Waltersmith refinery and Aradel refinery, they are producing between 650 to 1,200ppm. So, in terms of quality, their product is much more inferior to the imported quality,” he stated.Dangote revealed to Premium Times that the challenges his refinery is currently facing have validated the warnings of his friends and associates, who advised him to exercise caution when investing billions of dollars in the Nigerian economy.As you probably know, I am 67 years old, in less than three years, I will be 70. I need very little to live the rest of my life. I can’t take the refinery or any other property or asset to my grave. Everything I do is in the interest of my country.“This refinery can help in resolving the problem but it does appear some people are uncomfortable that I am in the picture. So I am ready to let go, let the NNPC buy me out, run the refinery. At least the country will have high-quality products and create jobs,” he saidThe Dangote Refinery, which started operations last year after a prolonged construction period, has a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day.The refinery is aimed to reduce Nigeria’s reliance on foreign fuel imports and conserve foreign exchange.
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