Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Nigerian billionaire businessman and industrialist, has said that the petrol processed by Dangote Refinery will match the quality of the petrol sold in the US and that they will ensure that nobody beats them in terms of quality.
Dangote said this in a press briefing on Tuesday morning, where he officially announced the Dangote Refinery’s progress in petrol processing.
Dangote, during the briefing, brought a sample of the petrol in a bottle, showing it to the audience as he said, “You might see it like a different colour, but that’s the real thing. So, you are now going to have good petrol where the engines of your vehicles will last longer. You will not be having an engine issue, which a lot of us were having. It won’t happen at all. The quality here will match that of quality of anywhere in the world…we will make sure that nobody will beat us in terms of quality.
“As soon as we finalise with the NNPC, our products will start going into the market,” he added.
He then said that the introduction of Dangote Refinery’s petroleum into the Nigerian market will show Nigeria’s true consumption of petrol, as it will reduce the need for import, and by extension, reduce round-tripping that is carried out.
He said, “There is quite a lot of what you call round-tripping where people now do documentation and the fuel does not come into Nigeria, and this is a fact. So, right now, as we have this refinery working, it will show the true consumption of Nigeria. We can track every single loaded truck and we will try as much as possible to track the loaded ships.”
Then announced that Dangote Refinery would take up the role of supplying polypropylene to Nigeria, saying, “Let me assure you of one thing, we have what you call the demand of polypropylene, there is a demand of polypropylene in the country. Nigeria, from October, will not import any more polypropylene, which used to be a quarter of a million tons. No more imports of polypropylene, we will satisfy the market 100%.”
Dangote then expressed appreciation to President Tinubu and Nigerians, saying, “Nigeria has not produced petrol, which is gasoline for very very many years, but I stand with you today- I would like to salute the people of Nigeria and the government of Ahmed Bola Tinubu for creating the environment for us to thrive and also achieve this monumental task of giving energy to our people for growth, development and prosperity.
“I want to personally also thank our President, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for creating this idea of Naira for crude and also Naira for the product. Doing that, it will give a lot of stability for the Naira. You know, right now, it will remove 40% of the demand for dollars in the market, and that will stabilise the market.
“Today’s discussion is just to celebrate and to thank God almighty for bringing us to this stage of now producing gasoline, and I know that a lot of people have not believed that we will be able to deliver, but we’ve been able to deliver.
“I hope this refinery will change the entire dynamics, not only in Nigeria but in sub-Saharan Africa. The capacity that we have will not only meet up with Nigeria’s demand, it will meet up the demand of sub-Saharan Africa at least,” he said.
