Dangote Urges Africa to End Fuel Imports and Boost Local Refining Capacity
Aliko Dangote, President of Dangote Industries Limited, has voiced serious concerns over Africa’s growing dependence on imported fuel, warning that the continent risks becoming a dumping ground for substandard petroleum products.
Speaking about the motivation behind the $20 billion Dangote Refinery, Dangote said the project was driven by a commitment to help Nigeria achieve energy self-sufficiency and to inspire similar industrial development across Africa.
“People think building a refinery is like building a house,” Dangote said. “If I had known the scale of the challenges we’d face, I might not have started. But we believed nothing is impossible, so we kept pushing.”
The Dangote Refinery, which began operations in 2024, is the largest in Africa, with a processing capacity of 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
Since its launch, it has begun reshaping Nigeria’s oil sector and could soon impact the broader regional fuel trade.
Economists say the refinery could potentially end Africa’s $17 billion-a-year gasoline trade with Europe, which for decades has flooded the continent with imported fuel—often of lower quality than globally accepted standards.
Dangote hopes the refinery will catalyze a shift across Africa, encouraging countries to build domestic refining capacity and invest in value-added industries, rather than continuing to export raw materials.
In a further step toward expanding his industrial footprint, Dangote recently unveiled plans to develop a major seaport near his refinery and fertilizer plants.
The port is expected to streamline exports and support the broader logistics needs of his growing empire.
Earlier this year, Dangote projected that his conglomerate could reach $30 billion in total revenue by 2026, despite global economic uncertainties, including trade tensions influenced by policies from former U.S. President Donald Trump.
He also issued a call to wealthy Nigerians and African investors to reinvest profits locally, asserting that domestic investment is the most sustainable path to long-term national development.
